


Ivy League Material

by confirmedbugheadtrash



Category: Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Angst, F/M, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, Slow Burn, What even is canon?, all the bughead!
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-06-14
Updated: 2018-05-29
Packaged: 2018-11-14 03:35:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 25,086
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11199645
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/confirmedbugheadtrash/pseuds/confirmedbugheadtrash
Summary: Betty Cooper, had, despite her very best efforts, still ended up at an Ivy League school. Yale had welcomed her with open arms nearly a week after her mother, Alice Cooper, had filled out and sent in her application. Alice had been thrilled. Betty had dreamt about burning her acceptance letter on the sidewalk in front of where her mother worked. Betty knew this was the perfect opportunity to show everyone that she wasn’t perfect.Jughead Jones, had, despite himself, ended up at an Ivy League school. He was a sponsor student, the kid all the rich, genius snobs whispered about in those hallowed halls. He had spent his young, impressionable years doing his very best to put forth as little effort as possible. But “his brains were worth saving,” his principle had told him over and over again. The poor man just wanted something bright and shiny to come from Southside High. Jughead Jones was neither bright nor shiny, dammit. At least, he tried his hardest not to be.





	1. Cleanse

**Author's Note:**

> I'm ignoring some blatant parts of canon (i.e. Archie has no interest in a music career, Betty's parents are divorced, the teens did not go through the ordeal of Jason's murder, and they all did not go to the same high school). 
> 
> This is basically just a Bughead college au with all the fixin's. Thanks for reading!

If there was one thing Betty Cooper couldn’t stand, it was being bossed around. She had begged (literally begged on her knees) for her mother to not help her move in. Part of her had felt guilty at first. She was the youngest child in her family going off on her own for the first time. The last bird out of her parent’s nest.

But all she had wanted to do was avoid _this._ Alice Cooper was twittering around the room, hanging up decorations that Betty did not choose in places that Betty also, coincidentally, did not get to choose. She had fought her mother tooth and nail on almost every aisle at Target when they had began shopping for her over the summer, but it hadn’t helped a lick. The only thing that Betty could manage was to pick her color scheme - white and navy - and convince her mother that she would be wasting so much money on buying new decorations when she had so many decorations that she already loved in her room that she could just take with her. She had still come out of the store with a rug, a bedspread set, and horrendously ugly twin floor lamps that Alice insisted was a must ( _“Dim dorm lighting is just wretched. It’ll wash you out even more, honey.”_ ).

All she had wanted to do was to escape Riverdale and escape out from under her mother’s thumb. Since her parent’s had divorced, and Betty’s older sister Polly had been deemed a “teenage mom” all those years ago, Alice had thrown almost all her energy into making sure that Betty came out just perfect. As she watched her dorm room come together around her, she felt that Yale had not been far enough away from home after all.

From the corner of her eye, she saw her mother putting things she did not recognize on her desk and shelves. “Mom, what is all that?”

Alice barely glanced over her shoulder. “Just some cute little things I picked up last weekend to really finish the look in here.”

The dress in Betty’s hands took a slight beating when she roughly hung it up in her closet. “Mom, remember, I wanted to do a sort of minimalist thing. I don’t want stuff suffocating me if I’m stressed about homework or something.” Two years ago, after dealing with emotional baggage around a certain redhead that had built up for the better part of Betty’s life, she had decided to perform a cleanse on every part of her life. That had involved giving away a lot of her belongings that held no place in her heart, and, to her mother’s absolute horror, the death of her all-pastel wardrobe. All of her clothes now fit in one large suitcase, and the other suitcase in her dorm held her dearest possessions and decorations she would be putting up once her mom left. She could put her mom’s stuff in a box in the closest and bring it out in emergencies (read: when Alice comes to visit).

“You’ll thank me later, Elizabeth.” Short, taste, and absolute. That was Alice Cooper, and that was where Betty was heading if she couldn’t find her own way. When there was a knock on the door, and a dark-haired girl that was all satin and pearls and curious glances stepped into Betty’s room, she thought that maybe, just maybe, she had found her way to her new life.

“Veronica Lodge,” the girl announced, extending her hand towards Betty. Betty rushed forward, smiling with a slightly nervous edge, and shook hands. “And you must be the one and only Elizabeth Cooper, my new roommate.”

Betty laughed at the girl’s grandeur. “I go by Betty. Its nice to meet you.”

Veronica winked. “So, my driver was just going to go into town and get me a coffee. Want one?”

‘ _My driver.’_ Oh boy. Before she could answer, Alice stole the show. “Actually, caffeine isn’t really good for Betty. It makes her sort of agita-“

“ _Actually_ , Veronica, I would love a coffee. Double shot of espresso.” She smiled at her roommate and the girl raised her eyebrow. With a mischievous smile and a dainty wave of her fingers, she was gone. Betty saw at least four other people in the common room of their apartment-style dorm, all carrying furniture and bags into the other girl’s room.

“Elizabeth,” Alice hissed, coming to stand too close to Betty. “You know caffeine makes you agitated.”

Betty stepped back and folder her arms, the jeans she was folding forgotten. “Mom, I stopped taking medication for anxiety nine months ago, and I haven’t taken a Ritalin since senior finals. I’ll be fine,” she emphasized, turning back to her closet.

Her mother was silent for a moment before she hopped right back on her wagon. “Oh, Betty, I still can’t believe you got rid of most of your clothes. You barely have anything here, and its all so _dark_.” As the unpacking continued, Betty practiced taking deep breaths in through her nose. In a few hours her mother would be driving back to Riverdale, hours away. She would start a new life and could act however she liked. Her freedom was so close that her mother’s bickering didn’t seem as bad as normal.

“Betty!” She turned at the familiar voice, a wide smile spreading across her face. Archie Andrews, her best friend of basically her whole life, rushed towards her and squished her in his classic bear hug. “Are you ready for the rest of our lives?”

She winced at the cliché, but nodded anyway. Archie, by some power that she couldn’t even begin to fathom, had gotten into to Yale. She knew, partly, that it was because he signed on to Yale’s football team. He was an all-American, redheaded sweetheart that came with glowing recommendations from teachers, but brought mediocre grades to the table. Archie at Yale was a conundrum she didn’t think she would ever know the answer to, not completely. But still, he was here and she was genuinely happy. At fifteen she had dreamed of going to college with Archie, but as cookie-cutter perfect couple she had always pictured them to be. Now she was just grateful to be going to school with such a good, kind friend.

“All settled in to the apartment, Arch?” she asked, shaking her head when he attempted to help her fold clothes.

He eventually gave up when the only result he got was a mess of a sweater and plopped down on her new fluffy duvet. He wiggled to show his approval of the comfort, and then smiled broadly up at her. “Oh yeah. Its suh- _weet!_ And Dad took me grocery shopping this morning so I’m covered for at least two weeks.”

Betty rolled her eyes. “More like 5 days,” she teased.

“One fat-free, peppermint white-chocolate mocha with _two_ shots of expresso, B!”

Betty turned just in time for Veronica to notice the redhead on her bed, and for Archie to notice the modern goddess that was Veronica Lodge. She knew what their eyes meant.

“Uh, hi!” Archie stood up quickly and ran a hand through his hair. Veronica extended a dainty hand, looking at him with narrowed eyes and a careful smile. “I’m Archie.”

“Veronica Lodge,” she told him shortly. Betty heard the dismissiveness in the girl’s tone, but she knew that it wasn’t real. “B, who is this boy in our home?”

Betty walked up to the pair and gladly accepted her coffee. “We grew up together - we were neighbors. He goes to Yale now too.”

“That is totally the sweetest story. Love since preschool, huh?” she cooed.

Archie’s cheeks went pink. “Uh-“

“Pfft, he wishes,” Betty teased, turning back to her room. Her mother had been very interested in her phone since Archie had gotten there, no doubt reading emails. She was sort of thankful for her distraction because no doubt the woman would have butted in here and told Veronica how Archie had missed out when he had turned down Betty. It was over and done now, and Betty would like for it to stay that way.

“Well, Archiekins, I’m sure we’ll be seeing a lot of each other.” She pivoted on her heel and bounced out of the room. Archie was all but a puddle on the floor.

“ _Betty_ -“

She turned to him immediately. “Can we get through the first week of college before I have to start putting in a good word for you please?”

He swallowed. There was something uneasy behind his eyes. Betty knew what it was and refused to acknowledge it. “Of course, Betty. Need any help unpacking?”

“We are actually all done here, Archibald. You can walk with me out so Betty can get her beauty sleep for freshmen orientation tomorrow.” Alice stood up, brushed the bumps out of her pencil skirt, and snatched her handbag up, all in one fluid motion. The fluidity was honestly amazing.

Archie gave Betty a questioning look to which Betty just shrugged to. She was going to re-decorate her room after her mother left, whether Archie was there or not. He nodded. “Yeah, I should probably get home anyway. My roommate still hadn’t shown up when I left.”

They both followed the storm that was Alice Cooper out, past all of Veronica’s worker bees, and to the road where she parked. Betty hadn’t had time on the way in to take in the view of the quiet, elegant campus with all its greenery, and it looked breathtaking as the sun went down. When she was back in her room, she opened her window to let the night air in and began to undo what Alice had done. Not all of it was bad - she had bought Betty a few tiny plants. Succulents, Betty thought happily. She had mentioned them to her mom last week, rambling aloud at her ability to keep something alive. Now that ability would be tested.

Her mother wasn’t all bad, not all the time. Alice and Betty had just never gotten along, but when the divorce and Polly’s pregnancy happened, it had gotten worse. Betty had grown up manicured and picked and pruned, but it wasn’t suffocating. Not until the house got more tense and Betty was the only good thing that she had left. Betty didn’t agree with the way her mother thought of Polly and the twins, and certainly didn’t agree on how to handle situations involving other people, but Alice was her mother. That counted for something. Betty left up a few more things from her mother, including a new family photo of her, her sister, the twins, and Alice. She also found a new leather journal on her bedside table.

If there was one thing that Betty and Alice were going to agree on, it was writing. Alice and Betty’s dad ran the town’s paper together, but after the divorce, her mother quit and became the teacher editor of the school newspaper. Betty worked on the newspaper all four years of high school and understood her mother’s draw to journalism. At Yale she would study journalism, hopefully join the paper’s staff on campus, and get an internship that would take her even further from the stifling familiarity of Riverdale.

She had hopes and dreams; but everybody had those when they were young.

~

Jughead Jones had never seen so many columns in his entire life. Yale was smothered in them, and there was obsessively groomed foliage everywhere he looked. It was nothing like what he had been used to growing up on the Southside. There, not even all the neon letters of stores and restaurants could be counted on to light up at night; bars were especially notorious for only spelling out half their name when sunset hit and the lights flipped on. It was like an eerie sort of Other World where no one could spell and everyone was perfectly fine with it.

Jughead had never been fine with it.

His whole life had consisted of laying low and taking care of his little sister, Jellybean, more than their parents did. When he was naive and young he had dreams of a better life, but it seemed that life had dealt him the card of the Southside. People didn’t escape from that.

Jughead had accepted it. After he knew the truth, he stopped trying so hard in school, started withdrawing more into himself. Why should he put in an effort when his destiny was already decided for him? But the one thing that Jughead’s lack of effort couldn’t beat was his own brain. Despite himself, Jughead liked to learn. He absorbed everything around him. Tuning in to himself had only made everything surrounding him louder, more memorable. That’s when he started to write. It was nothing at first, just, embarrassingly, _poems_. (Thank God he got over that quick.) After that he wrote and illustrated comics, but he was a shitty artist. Finally he tried writing stories - he hadn’t expected to be good. He didn’t _mean_ to be good. He had never wanted his English teacher to notice, but after he had started, he couldn’t hold back - not even on something as dumb as papers for school.

She had entered his essay about _Crime and Punishment_ into some statewide competition and by some struck of luck he won. (He still didn’t think he could escape.) After that came pressure. Pressure from his teacher to exercise his creativity. Pressure from his principle to let everyone know that good things can come from the hellhole that is Southside. Pressure from his family for prize money.

Yale had noticed. That’s the only reason he had gotten there. Some alumni with too much money got asked by the Yale school board to sponsor the writer kid. The best go to Yale, _nowhere else._

And here Jughead was at freshmen orientation at 10 am on a Saturday, at a school that had pressured him to come, with his all-American, Football Star, Good Guy of a roommate by his side. Jughead wanted to scream that it was all just a big misunderstanding.

Before he knew what was happening, he was being shuffled away from the only person here he knew and into the building designated for the 200 or so students with last names I through L. The orientation was overall boring. There was nothing that Jughead couldn’t have figured out with a little bit of exploring by himself., but he was too far up front in the auditorium to dip out early. He was amazed that other people were asking questions, like they weren’t all fully-capable eighteen year olds.

Finally, after an agonizing hour and forty-five minutes, they were released. Archie had texted him that he would be waiting for him outside the dining hall, so that’s the direction that Jughead - and unfortunately most of the freshmen body - went. Thanks to the very-detailed instructions he had just been walked through, he was able to find the dining hall no problem.

Archie was easily recognized thanks to his flaming red hair, but Jughead approached with caution. A pretty blonde girl stood across from him, laughing at something he said. Jughead didn’t know it was impossible to work that fast, but he knew his roommate probably had no problem with girls. He better get used to it because there would no doubt be a parade of females coming in and out of their apartment. “Archie,” he said quietly, nodding towards him.

Archie turned his million dollar smile to him, and the girl followed suit. Jughead had a flashback of a 1950s sit com, seeing the two of them stand side by side looking so perfect. It was unsettling. “Jughead! Man, I love college.”

Jughead chuckled. _Of course_ Archie would love college. He was built for it. He met the blonde girl’s eyes and the eye roll she gave him was unexpected; so she saw Archie like the Abercrombie model that he was. Interesting.

“I’m Betty Cooper,” she said, extending her hand. Jughead looked at the porcelain skin for a few moments before wearily reaching out to accept the handshake. “Archie and I grew up as neighbors. You’re his roommate?” He nodded, not giving much else. She didn’t skip a beat at his uncanny ability to make talking to him akin to talking to a brick wall. “Jughead is an…unusual name.”

Archie snorted. “You think that’s unusual? The name the school mailed me over the summer was even weirder. _For_ -“

“I’m starving,” Jughead interjected, now more animated than he had wanted to be. It went against his icy, loner aesthetic.

Archie’s laughter stopped just as suddenly as it had started. His eyes were focused on something over Jughead’s shoulder. Jughead turned and instantly knew what - or rather, who - it was. A raven-haired Latino girl was striding confidently towards their group, a half-smirk half-smile curling her mouth. Jughead knew he would be seeing more of her, if the look in his roommate’s eyes meant anything.

“B, Archiekins… we’ve picked up a straggler, I see.”

“This is Jughead, Archie’s roommate,” Betty offered quickly. Jughead looked up at her just in time to smile at her before she looked away.

The girl quirked her eyebrow up at his name but otherwise didn’t mention it. “Veronica Lodge. And are we really about to slum it in the dining hall on our first official day on campus? Mood killer.”

Archie stepped closer to Veronica. “Well where do you want to go?” Betty took a step away from the two, a look on her face like she was trying too hard to not have a reaction. Jughead noticed. He didn’t realize it then, but Jughead would go on noticing Betty until she wouldn’t have him anymore.


	2. Selectively Amiable

One thing that Betty could always count on was her brain. But, for the first time since her first day of kindergarten, Betty Cooper was nervous for her first day of school. Because it wasn't just school. It was an _Ivy League institution_ , home of the best and the brightest. Even though this wasn't her choice school, she was here. She didn't have to be perfect to make a future for herself.

She felt the old familiar pressure to be the best creeping up on her. "Veronica!" she called, getting up from her bed. The girl in question was reading a magazine on the couch in their common room. She batted her eyelashes at Betty. "We need to do something tonight."

Veronica snapped the magazine closed and smirked at me. “Music to my ears, Betty Cooper.”

Fifteen minutes later, Archie and an unenthusiastic Jughead knocked on the door. The golden boy had managed to get a bottle of whiskey and Veronica took it from him with a kiss on the cheek. She left a maroon lipstick print and two red ears from Archie. “I’m thinking shots?”

Betty’s stomach flipped.

Jughead scoffed from his position laid flat on the couch. “Are we really going to be those stereotypical college freshmen that get drunk the night before classes start?”

Veronica raised her eyebrow. “Jughead Jones, you will not be a fun-sucker on this, the eve of the rest of our lives.” Jughead’s eye roll made Betty smile.

She sat on the arm of the couch by his feet. “Are you always this grumpy?”

He crossed his legs at his ankles. “I like to think that I’m selectively amiable.”

“Doesn’t that just mean you’re rude?”

Jughead leaned up on his elbows, showcasing his best offended look, but Betty was purposefully avoiding looking at him. There was a tug of a smile visible. _Game on._

The four of them had become sort of a crew this weekend. When they were allowed, they huddled together during orientation things and freshmen activities. Most meal times were spent either in the dining hall (much to Veronica’s dismay, Jughead had caught wind of a cereal bar and had decided that breakfast belonged to the dining hall) or calling for take-out from the boys’ apartment or the girls’ dorm. In just three days, they had discovered the best restaurants in town and had formed some sort of camaraderie that Jughead wasn’t sure about.

In Southside, his peer situation had been built in. His father was a part of a gang on that side of town, the Southside Serpents, and so by default so had Jughead. He didn’t much like the social status and reputation that came with the gang, but even if he had tried to detach himself, there would have been nothing for him on the outside. Because of his dad, growing up, none of the other kids in school really talked to him except for the other Serpent brats. The “normal kids” were all told by their parents to stay away from the dirty-looking kids, the kids with holes in their jeans and foul words in their mouths. Even if he wanted to make friends outside of the gang, no one would want him.

To be away from that, even if just for a weekend, was a feeling like he had never known. Sure, Archie and Betty knew that Southside was the rough side of Riverdale, but that didn’t mean that Jughead was _bad_. Grooming assured that he was rough around the edges, but his mindset could be whatever he wanted. He had no expectations here, and he hadn’t expected it to feel so freeing. He had never understood the organic nature of friends, of choosing who you spent your time with.

Jughead found himself accepting the glitter shot glass that Veronica handed him with an almost-smile.

~

Jughead Jones shouldn’t have been surprised when Betty showed up to their 9 am intro into writing class, just as bright eyed and bushy-tailed as he had seen her for the past four days. And yet, here he was, impressed. He knew for a fact that they had taken at least three shots together, hiding from Veronica’s party games in Betty’s room. At least ten other people showed up at their “gathering” last night - no doubt new friends of Archie’s and Veronica’s. Jughead was glad that at least another person in their group hated crowds.

“Good morning, sunshine,” she said warmly to Jughead, who, did not, in fact, have any resemblance to the sun today, or any other day. Hangover or not. He was slouched in a chair at a two-person table at the very back of the room. Betty claimed the table’s other seat without asking.

“How are you so rested and happy? Look at my skin turgor,” he demanded, pinching skin on the back of his hand. It stayed up for a few seconds before settling back down. “I’m dehydrated!”

Betty wasn’t about to tell her secret to this boy just yet, if ever. Last night had been the first day of the rest of her life, not today. Last night was the first night of the new and not-improved Betty Cooper. She had woken with a smile on her face and a feeling of rebellion overwhelming her headache. Oh, what Alice Cooper would say if she knew how irresponsible her daughter had been the night before her first day of college. The feeling was delicious.

“Are we about to be study buddies, Juggy?” she teased, passing her water bottle over to him. He looked at it for a moment, but then it was replaced by a to-go cup of coffee. Jughead chose the latter, and he always would.

As the caffeine entered his blood stream, Jughead looked over at Betty. Her hair was French-braided into pigtails, and she wore jeans with rips in the knees and a lightweight olive green hoodie. He didn’t know, but this outfit was so completely un-Betty that she actually felt at home in her own skin for once in her life. All he knew was this pretty girl had somehow watched him be socially awkward during orientation weekend, seen him laughably inebriated last night, had let him drink most of her first day of school coffee, and yet. Here she was, beside him, claiming them Seat Neighbors for the rest of the semester.

“I have to warn you, though,” Betty said with a small smile, pulling Jughead from his thoughts, “I plan to be a slacker for the first time in my life and I’ll be damned if you stand in my way.”

Jughead would hold her to that. When class ended, he leaned over and tapped her notebook. “Slackers don’t take so many notes, Betts.”

She put her things away and stood, Jughead following suit. “I’m trying to slack off, Juggy, not fail out of Yale.”

He lifted an eyebrow to her as they walked out of the room. “That’s not the same thing?” She turned like she was preparing to walk into another classroom, but Jughead reached out to catch her elbow. She looked from his hand to his face in amusement. “I assume you’re going to the campus club fair tonight?” She shrugged. “Don’t make me go alone. Archie already belongs to the only club he needs.”

She smirked at him. “Come by my room at four-thirty. If you don’t bring coffee, don’t bother showing up.”

Later that afternoon, Jughead was sat on the black leather couch that Archie had bought for their apartment. His laptop warmed the tops of his thighs as he stared at a blank screen. Normally he couldn’t _stop_ writing, but he hadn’t typed anything out since moving in last Thursday. Writing was a muscle that he was always consistent in exercising, but he was feeling a little sore today.

Jughead Jones, after his brief dip into producing prize-winning literary essays, had settled comfortably and quietly into his fiction. Something about characters that could actually break out of their chains of social expectations really held his attention. If he stayed in his fictitious world for long enough, he even started to believe that maybe it was possible outside of books. As if sensing Jughead pulling away, his phone chimed with a text notification.

_Jellybean: Dad is drinking. How did you get him to calm down?_

Jughead pinched the bridge of his nose.

_**Just get out of the house. Stay with a friend for the night, okay?** _

He sighed, and threw his phone down on the couch. He could forgive his mother for leaving his dad. FP Jones didn’t know what responsibility or family meant. His mother didn’t deserve that kind of toxic relationship. What he couldn’t forgive, though, was his mother leaving Jellybean behind.

Jughead had been a high school junior when he went to bed one night and woke up with one less parent. He could understand leaving him behind; he only had one more year in Riverdale and then he was off to college. But Jellybean had been in 7th grade when their mother had bailed. From all the talks the two Jones kids had shared, Jughead felt like he had gone through middle school twice.

Resilient. The Jones kids were resilient. They had to be.

Archie came bustling through the from door, shattering Jughead’s inner dialogue. He nodded at his roommate and put his backpack on their kitchen counter. “So. Veronica told me that you and Betty are going to the club thing tonight. We need to talk about some things.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here is chapter 2! As for right now, I will be posting every Wednesday and Saturday. That being said, if I fall behind on my writing time, I will post on updates on my tumblr (confirmedbugheadtrash). I hope everyone enjoys where this is going :) Thanks so much for the comments, kudos, and bookmarks!


	3. Passenger

Much to Betty’s surprise, everything at Yale was a lot more odd than she had expected. The fact that the interest meeting for joining the newspaper staff was being held at two in the morning, with the editor and older writers all dressed in black hoodies proved that.

Jughead leaned close enough to whisper in her ear. “What cult did you convince me to sign up for?”

She smirked at him. “Don’t be a baby.”

A tall slender girl with her hood over her head stepped away from the group of hoodie-clad journalists. “Okay, that’s all the time we’re waiting.” She pulled her hood down and all the other hoods followed. “Congratulations. Everyone that beckoned to our early morning text is now on the newspaper staff. News doesn’t sleep, people. Lesson number one.”

Once they were dismissed, Jughead offered to walk Betty back to the dorm. “So, are you going to thank me for banging on your door until you woke up?”

Betty rolled her eyes. It was true - if Jughead hadn’t woken her up, she wouldn’t have made it to the meeting and would not have been invited to join the newspaper. She did owe him that. “I _might_ say thank you once Veronica stops screaming about needing her beauty sleep.”

Jughead chuckled. An added bonus: annoying Veronica. “Sorry about that.”

When her dorm came into view, Betty stopped. “Hey, Juggy, you drove here, right?”

“Define ‘drove.’” She looked at him. He shrugged in response. “Motorcycle,” he explained.

Betty’s eyebrows rose for half a second before her eyes lit up. “Juggy, I think you are going to make an excellent accomplice this year.” She could see her mother’s face if she knew her daughter was riding on the back of a motorcycle, somebody's bike that hailed from the Southside. She linked her arm through his and pulled him forward. “How do you feel about a late night Denny’s run?” They walked right past Betty’s dorm.

Turns out Jughead only owned one helmet. He sheepishly handed it to Betty, wondering what was going through her head. From her initial reaction from him telling her that he drove a motorcycle, it was safe to assume that she hadn’t been on one. Surely she was thinking how stupid he was about to be for not wearing a helmet. “I don’t usually have passengers,” he said over his shoulder. “So hold on.”

Ever so slowly, he felt delicate hands wrap around his waist. She crossed her fingers on his stomach, and her torso pressed warmly into his back. It was unfamiliar, this closeness. Very few people had ever even been allowed to hug him. Betty’s scent and warmth looped through his mind, making him wonder if he was okay to drive. The bike launched forward and Jughead gripped the handles until his knuckles were white.

He knew he was correct in thinking she had never been on a bike before with how her body reacted to turns. Whereas Jughead’s body leaned into the turns, Betty tried to stop her body from leaning from side to side. “You okay?” he called over his shoulder. He felt her nod against his back in reply.

When they parked, Jughead climbed off the bike, expecting Betty to do the same. However, she was still straddling the bike, her fingers splaying wide on the seat that Jughead had just vacated. “Betts?”

When the helmet slid off her head, he was relieved to see a breathless smile on her face and wildness in her eyes. “My heart is beating so hard.”

“I’m sor-“

“That was fucking amazing.” She finally climbed off the bike as Jughead bit back a laugh. That was not the reaction he had expected her to have.

As they walked into the lonely Denny's an older woman gave them menus. "Sit anywhere you like, hons."

They sat in silence for a moment, comtemplating their orders. Jughead put his down first, giving him chances to sneak peaks of Betty through his hair as she studied the varieties of pancake and egg combinations. She pulled her bottom lip in with her teeth as she thought. Because of her rude awakening, she had not had time to pull herself together. This Betty was a stranger sitting in front of him, wild. Her hair hung in untamed, loose waves. There were dark circles under her eyes that she hadn't covered up with makeup. She had pulled on whatever she could find in her half-awake daze: an extra large red flannel, black leggings, and sneakers. She was so naturally out of order and uncontained, and he was starting to wonder why she covered this about her every day.

"Its rude to stare."

_Shit._ He blinked and found that she had shut her menu without him realizing it. "Well didn't you call me rude the other night? I wouldn't want to make a liar out of you so soon, Betty."

The waiter walked up to their table so all she could do in reply was roll her eyes. When the woman had gotten their orders, however, Betty was grinning ear to ear. "You ride a motorcycle so you have to have a leather jacket, right?" Jughead felt his ears go pink. She leaned in a little bit. " _Right_?"

"Uh…" He did, in fact, have a leather jacket. It just had a green snake on the back of it and a little bit of an association with a gang on the opposite side of town from where she lived back in Riverdale. It honestly surprised him that she had yet to put two-and-two together. He was weary of telling her because he didn't want her to treat him any differently. Jughead wasn't a bad guy, but the people he had grown up around didn't exactly have spotless records.

"You _so do_ ," she gushed, still smiling. "Don't make me break into your apartment to find it."

He had no doubt that she would break into his apartment if that's what she decided she wanted to do. She had the brains for knowing how to pick a lock and the guts to use that knowledge. He wondered how much a new leather jacket would set him back.

"Riddle me this, Betty Cooper," he said, working to get the attention off of him. She narrowed her eyes to dare him to continue. He smirked. "Why did Archie feel the need to sit down with me and give me a lecture about you?" The happiness that drained from her face was enough to make him wish he had never spoken. She looked miserable. "I just mean, he told me not to be a bad influence on you because you were practically perfect."

Some emotion returned to her face, and he was relieved. She sighed deeply. "If I could wipe one word from all human languages, it would be 'perfect.' Its such a stiff word."

He slightly turned his head. Jellybean said he looked like a confused puppy when he did that. "Why?"

She looked at him. "Jughead, three weeks ago I would not have worn this flannel or leggings at all. I would be grounded for months had I even sat on a motorcycle. If my mother had heard me say 'slacker' in class the other day, she would have yelled at me for two hours."

It had been very obvious to Jughead that being laid back and messy was something Betty was new to, but now he wanted to know why. "You lost me."

She grabbed her phone and began swiping the screen until she found what she was looking for. She slid the phone so it was in front of him. There was a picture of Betty, her blonde hair pulled back in a painful-looking headband, wearing a blue and yellow cheerleading uniform. The smiling girl looked nothing like the Betty he had just had on his bike. Without a word, he pushed back her phone, waiting.

"I've always had all this pressure, ya know? From my mom, Archie, school. To be the best, _perfect_. I never dressed in anything that wasn't pastel and showed too much skin. I was in charge of the school newspaper, I was a cheerleader, I was on the homecoming committee, I was a part of student council… I studied in all of my spare time, and never said no to anyone."

Jughead's eyes softened. "Why did you let someone else tell you who you had to be?"

Betty shrugged and finally met his gaze. Her blues eyes were uncertain. "I didn't know who I was when everything started. But lately I've been feeling so strained and trapped. So I figured in college I could start doing things because I wanted to do them. Less stress."

Jughead smiled at her, a genuine smile that she hadn't seen yet. "I'm sure Archie was just worried about you. I do own a motorcycle, after all. That reeks of trouble."

"And _that_ , dear Jughead, is what I'm looking for."

Their food came just then, and he was thankful. If she had been looking at him, he would have noticed something too soft in his look, and he couldn't have that.

"I'll put a good word in for you at the Bad Guys leather jacket shop." She snorted.

When he finally shut his eyes again around four am, his brain replayed Betty riding on the back of his bike until he went to sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, I know all the chapters have been pretty short so far, but the next 3 chapters I have written make up for it in their length!
> 
> By the way, this is super unbeta'd so please be kind.
> 
> Thanks so much to everyone reading and commenting. Please let me know what you think :)


	4. Saving Grace

Two bleary-eyed, wild weeks had gone by before Betty knew it. She hadn't expected college to go so smoothly. Of course, she had a quiz on Monday morning, a short story due on Tuesday, and a newspaper article that had to be finished by Wednesday afternoon, but that could wait. Tonight was Friday, and she was a blissful college freshman who had Chinese takeout on the way and a new book waiting for her on the coffee table.

Veronica, however, had a different plan for the night. “Well, Archiekins finally got the nerve to ask me out. Let’s hope he isn’t too mundane. It’d be a shame ‘cause he’s such a looker.” She walked into the living room, putting in one of her diamond earrings. She wore a suede black minidress with thin straps, and black stilettos to match. The height of them made Betty dizzy.

“You look good, Ronnie,” she said sincerely. There was only a slight punch in her gut now, thinking about Archie pursuing Veronica, when years ago Betty had been the one hopelessly pursuing him. “So what did he plan?”

Veronica walked to the mirror hanging on the outside of her door and started applying this dark maroon lip color that Betty might have to borrow one day. If she ever got a date.

She swallowed, thinking about it. Here she was, her second week of college over. She had a million things to think about and do, but she was wanting after a date. She had gone on a few dates during high school, but most of them were placeholders until Archie really saw her. Even after she had gotten mostly over him, she had only gone on two dates at most. One was with a senior football player that always winked at her while she was doing cheers in her River Vixens uniform, and the other had been one of her writer’s for the paper. Both had ended less than happily.

She didn’t want to do that kind of mindless dating anymore. She wasn’t up for getting her hopes up for someone who wasn’t going to stay around. And yet, she wished she was the one who was getting ready for a night out instead of Veronica. “Betty? _Hello?_ ”

Betty’s head snapped back to Veronica, who was now standing in front of the couch with her purse. “I’m sorry, what were you saying?”

She smiled down at her blonde friend. “I was asking you what the odds were that Archie would make me see some outlandish action film.”

Betty shrugged. She had seen quite the number of action films with Archie, but maybe since he actually considered tonight a date with Veronica, he would try harder.

Betty tried to suffocate the idea of dating with reading and a feast of chow lo mein. Around eleven-fifteen she caught herself nodding off, the book becoming heavier in her hands. She checked her phone for any sign of her roommate, but there was none. Just as Betty was about to retreat in her room for the night, there was a knock on the door.

She opened the door to a very wound up Jughead.

“Hi?” she asked, tugging on her short pajama shorts. She wished more of her legs were covered. At least she had on a baggy t-shirt.

“Betts, I’m sorry, but please let me hang out here. Our roommates are currently consummating their relationship in our apartment and Veronica sounds like a dying cat.”

This took Betty by such surprise that she stepped aside for Jughead to come in. It took her a moment to process that she needed to shut the door.

“ _Ew,_ ” Betty finally said, walking down to resume her spot on the couch. Except now Jughead was taking up half of it.

“Yeah. It was like a bad porno.” He shuddered and shook his head. “Seriously, Betty, you’re my saving grace.”

Betty found herself becoming less tense the more he talked. She had obviously known that dating could lead to… _that_ , but she hadn’t expected it to happen so soon. The Good Guy image she had of Archie in her head was slowing getting dirt on its shoes. But, positives, she wasn’t feeling as shocked and uncomfortable as she expected she would. Instead, she propped her feet up on Jughead’s lap, testing the waters of his comfort zone. He looked for a moment at her calves on the tops of his thighs before she saw the tension in his shoulders relax.

“You’re so dramatic, Juggy.”

He held a hand over his heart, the other slowly lowered to rest atop her ankle. He absentmindedly began fiddling with the fuzzy material. “Me?”

She had noticed in the past two weeks that Jughead wasn’t as forthright with physical affection that Betty was used to sharing with friends. She could feel it in the way his back tensed when she had wrapped her arms around his waist when they rode on his motorcycle to Denny’s. Ever since then, she had been watching how he interacted with others. For some reason, she had also started testing the waters, seeing if she could be affectionate with him without him freaking out. Him allowing her legs on his lap and then gingerly touching her ankle seemed like a good sign.

“So, were you able to gauge if this little rendezvous of theirs was going to be an all-night thing or is Ronnie going to show up sometime tonight?”

Jughead snapped to look at her, his pupils blown wide. “Fuck, Betty, I don’t know. I didn’t really waste time in the statistics.”

She giggled at how obviously bothered he was, and it was nice to not be the most nervous person in the room for once. “Just curious.”

Jughead shot her a glare before leaning back into the couch, sighing. Betty could feel each place his fingers delicately brushed along her ankle. “So, what wonderful Friday night did I interrupt?”

Betty held up her copy of Jane Eyre. “Just a read-in.”

“What about this wild, rebellious Betty I was promised in Denny’s a few weeks ago?” She kneed his chest lightly, her scowl meeting his smirk. “Sorry. ‘ _I am not an angel and I will not be one until I die: I will be myself._ ’”

Betty scoffed. “Why am I not surprised that you’ve read this before?”

Again, Jughead looked offended. Betty was beginning to like the way she made him react. “I am a refined man, Betty Cooper. One of extraordinary taste in books, lover of mediocre music, and hamburger connoisseur.”

“Oh my god.” He gave her a smile, then, and she was nearly shocked by it. Jughead rarely graced the world with anything other than a slightly raised eyebrow and a thin line for a mouth. She was thrown off by how attractive he was. There was one stray curl hanging out from under his beanie, and Betty suddenly wanted nothing more than to blow it out of his eyes.

She began picking at the skin of her lips, which Jughead caught onto. “Hey,” he leaned up a little bit, wanting to reach out to her, but not knowing how he could do that. “Its okay that I’m here, right? Because I can go find a pub to sit in, or go to the library. Its a nice night - I could go walk around outsi-“

“-Its fine,” she said. He leaned back, his face still showing a tad of worry. “Besides, you owe me. I shared my pathetic coming-of-age struggle, and you just sat there.” He grimaced. “You didn’t think I would let you off the hook, did you?”

A girl who traded in information. Jughead should have figured as much. She wouldn’t be Betty if she wasn’t smart and clever enough to keep up with things like that. “What is this, _Oprah_?” Even so, he shifted, now facing more towards her instead of facing forward. He found himself not wanting to lose contact with her so he moved her ankles with him.

She could tell that he was give in, and she batted her eyelashes to move the process along. It was aggravating to Jughead, really, how well this tactic worked on him.

“Fine. But we aren’t about to have some heart to heart like something from _Gilmore Girls_.”

Betty nodded. She was feigning a serious face. “Strictly _60 Minutes_ , got it.”

Jughead rolled his eyes but otherwise did not protest. He was unsure of how much to tell her. They had only been friends for a short time, but she had chosen to keep showing up, keep sitting next to him in class. She had earned some of his trust, if not most.

“You know I’m from the Southside, so I’m sure I don’t have to go into all the shay details of growing up over there. And I’m sure you know what stigma follows every single person from there.” Betty felt bad for nodding. Everyone knew about Southside. “I’ve never really been able to get away from the fact that I’m from there. Its sorta a cloud around me that no one wants to go through.” He shrugs, not able to meet her eyes. He felt like he was lying, even though he was only holding back some part of the truth. He didn’t think there was much of a difference between the two. “I’ve kind of accepted that that was my fate in life. But then I wrote this stupid essay about Crime and Punishment that won a national literary award and suddenly I’m being dragged from the depths of hell and shined up to be put on a pedestal.”

Betty looked at him hard. “But didn’t you want to break out of that cycle?” What she really meant was _why do you sound so disgusted?_

“I guess I had sort of let it sink in that I was always going to be some Southside s- brat.” He swallowed. He didn’t have it in him tonight to tell her what he actually was. He was ashamed as soon as it was done. “And now there’s all this pressure from everyone to do well. I do want a better life, but now that I have it… its scary.”

Betty leaned forward and pulled her knees to her chest, taking her legs off of Jughead. “Hey, you’re doing just fine.” She put one of her hands on his shoulder and squeezed it gently before putting it back around her knees.

He looked at her then. Her blue eyes were sincere. He had a brief thought about letting himself get lost in them, get intoxicated by her belief in him, but he dropped his gaze. He couldn’t give her hope where he knew there wasn’t any.

~

“We have been here a month. How is it already Family weekend?”

Betty and Jughead both didn’t acknowledge Veronica’s question. The two of them could certainly believe that they had been there long enough for it to be Homecoming. The writing projects they were furiously typing away at told them so.

The three of them were hanging out in Betty and Veronica’s dorm on this Friday afternoon in early October. They had plans to have a ‘last supper’ of sorts, before their families arrived tomorrow morning for the weekend’s events. They were just waiting on Archie to get out of football practice and then they were going to drown their sorrows in half-priced milkshakes.

All three of the kids had different feelings about the upcoming weekend. Veronica was ecstatic to see her mother, but seemed less than enthused about the fact that her father was to attend as well. She had told Betty not long ago that their father had been involved in a big money scandal, but had wormed his way out of any consequences. Since then, she hadn’t been the doting daughter she had been before.

Betty was just, altogether, resigned to the fact that soon her mother would be invading her newfound freedom. She didn’t have the energy to fight with her mother after the lecture the newspaper editor had given her earlier today. Her homecoming piece had been less than perfect, and he had let her have it in front of the whole staff. As she was skulking away she had heard Jughead say a few choice words to the editor, before appearing at her side, rubbing the space between her shoulder blades. It had helped a little.

Betty’s only hope was that Polly and the boys would come along. Then surely her mother couldn’t constantly berate her, not with so many witnesses.

Jughead, for his part in the matter, was nervous. It had always been the plan for Jellybean to come up for the weekend, and he was stoked about that. He had missed his younger sister, and they had texted more than he would ever admit (He couldn’t have Veronica making any more references commenting on how he was just a softie pretending to be a hard-ass). What he was nervous about, however, was the fact that two days ago, his dad had decided he would come with his little sister.

His dad had good and bad periods, and Jughead never knew which one his father was in the middle of. He could come here and they could almost be a normal family or he could come, hungover, and reveal Jughead’s shameful past. He could guess the outcome about as well as one could guess what side a flipped coin would land on.

All the uneasiness in the room left the afternoon silent except for the steady click of their keyboards and Veronica’s estranged outbursts every so often. The room gave an audible sigh when the redhead appeared in the doorway.

Most of the talk around the table that night was coming from Archie. Yale’s first football game was tomorrow afternoon, and the players had been working up to this moment. Archie was excited for not only his friends to see him play, but also that his dad would be here to witness it to. Archie had somehow landed a spot on varsity, which meant he would be starting tomorrow. Fred Andrews was the epitome of proud.

Veronica’s face melted more and more into a miserable puddle the longer Archie spoke. He paused when he noticed. “Ronnie, what’s up?”

She would barely meet his eyes. Archie looked at Betty and Jughead but they shrugged. To them, the other side of the booth where there roommates sat was a complete mystery.

“Oh, Archiekins, please don’t be mad at me. Mom and Daddy are not football people. They aren’t going to want to go,” she practically cried. Archie looked like he had been kicked. “I don’t want to miss your first game.”

Under the table, Jughead bumped Betty’s knee with his own. When she looked at him, she could tell he was trying to hide a smile. The melodrama coming from their counterparts was amusing, she would admit. It was like watching a crossover of _90210_ and _Friday Night Lights_. Betty bit on her lip to keep from smiling.

After Veronica’s little announcement, the group seemed to be dreading tomorrow even more. They all piled up in Archie’s old jeep. They were an entirely too sullen bunch. A Cheryl Crow song played over the radio.

When Betty woke up the next morning, there was a motorcycle helmet sitting on their welcome mat. It had a pink skull on the back. In Jughead’s handwriting, a note said: _I think your mom will just love to see this in your room, don’t you_?

She smirked at the thought of Alice Cooper’s eyebrows shooting up into her hairline.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, the chapters are finally starting to get longer, yay! 
> 
> I am overwhelmed by the interest in this story and I want to thank everyone for reading and commenting. The comments brighten my day :)
> 
> So far the story has been very fluffy, but starting with the next chapter for family weekend, the drama starts.
> 
> Also, I was invited to join the Collection 'Bughead AU Project,' which I am very excited about! Everyone should go and check out the stories in the collection :)


	5. Known

Jughead was surprised by which side of his dad that he got the next morning. FP and Jellybean pulled up to the boy’s apartment complex around twelve. Jellybean grabbed him into a crushing hug as soon as he had opened the door, and then he and his dad shared an awkward but not entirely uncomfortable side hug.

His father demanded that he treat his kids to lunch, so that’s what they did. He wanted a tour of campus, so Jughead walked him around the courtyards. He wracked his brain for anything interesting about the campus that he learned during orientation.

On the outside, the Jones seemed like a normal, happy family. They walked around this Ivy League school, Jughead’s arm around his little sister’s shoulders, and their dad following behind. To outsiders, there was no tension.

To Jughead, every step he took was a step that he might regret. He knew this side of his dad just as well as the less pleasant side. At least when FP was acting horrible, Jughead knew what to expect. But this side of FP was a side that was one word away from going postal. It was agonizing.

When their father slipped into the bathroom, Jughead turned on his sister. She was looking at him like she expected it. “So how has it been at home, really?” Their dad had done most of the talking that day, making it seem like everything was all wrapped up into a tidy bow back in the trailer park. Jughead wasn’t that naive.

Jellybean shrugged. The sad smile on her face made a red, angry beast fidget inside of him. “Its the same as it was when you lived at home, Jug. He drinks, he sleeps, sometimes he works.”

Jughead sighed. He knew that nothing would change once he left, but he could always hope. Now he knew for sure. It had been bearable when he was at home. He worked for an auto shop after school and on weekends, so he had money for the basics that he and Jellybean needed. Now that he wasn’t bringing in a paycheck for the house, he wasn’t sure what kind of life Jellybean was living. “How’s money?” he asked quietly.

Jellybean reached down and squeezed his hand. “Pop Tate gave me a job waitressing for him after school, so I manage.” Jughead frowned. He didn’t want his sister to have to work; he wanted her to be able to focus on school and being young. “Its okay, really. The tips are good and it gets me out of the house…”

She didn’t say _away from Dad_ , but she didn’t need to. They both knew.

Another part of why Jughead had not wanted to come to Yale had been his little sister. He didn’t like the idea of leaving her in that house with the man they barely recognized. But his principal had insisted, their dad had instead, _Jellybean_ had insisted. She didn’t want to stop him from living his life. It had been a hard thing to do, but if there was anything that he couldn’t abandon, it was Jellybean’s wishes. So he had left.

It was a surprise to all three of the Joneses when they made it to the tailgate without a hitch. If he could just finish out the day, then FP and Jellybean would drive back to Riverdale tonight, no worse for wear.

Of course, that was wishful thinking.

At first it had been Archie’s dad. Jughead had never met the man before, but it became clear by FP’s annoyance that he had. It wasn’t much of a surprise, because they both had spent their entire lives in Riverdale, and it wasn’t that big of a town. Jughead steeled himself, but he hadn’t needed to yet.

When Betty showed up with her mother, her sister, and two twin boys around the age of three, FP’s agitation grew. He saw a flash of the same agitation in Betty’s mother’s eyes before she rushed forward to shake Fred’s hand.

Archie, Jughead, and Betty shared a meaningful look, and Jughead knew then that the jig was up. Now it was just a countdown until his father blew his cap.

Archie left to get ready for the game shortly after everyone arrived, and with him he took everyone’s common purpose of being there. There was a beat before Fred asked who all wanted burgers. FP declined loudly.

Betty couldn’t help but watch the exchanges between Jughead and his father. She recognized the hardness of Jughead’s jaw as soon as her family had walked up to Fred’s tailgate. Something had not been right. When her mother shot an icy glare towards his father, Betty’s heart sank.

Her mother had drifted off into the crowd, wanting to find some other Yale parents to be uppity with, and finally she could breath again. Her family had rolled up at nine-thirty that morning. Her mother held an itinerary to her chest and Polly grimaced behind her. The ride over must’ve been tough.

However, Betty tried not to let her mother control the day completely. She wanted time to play with her nephews, and show them what she loved about campus, introduce them to her friends. Unfortunately, her day had been thus far in the hands of the Yale Family Weekend Committee. Her mother had made sure that they hadn’t missed a single event.

One of the twins, Charlie, walked clumsily toward her. She scooped him up and let him stand on the bench seat of the picnic table she and her sister sat at.

“Having any fun?” her sister, Polly, asked. Betty shrugged and she held Charlie steady so he wouldn’t fall. His brother, Marlie, fussed until Polly let him stand up, too. “I’m sorry, Betty.”

Betty smiled. “I am glad to see you three, though. I feel like they’ve grown so much and its only been a month.”

Polly laughed. “I know what you mean, and I see them every day.”

“I miss you guys,” she said absentmindedly. She caught Jughead’s eyes over her sister’s shoulder and he winked at her quickly, then dove back into his conversation. Betty knew she was blushing, but she didn’t much care.

Polly cleared her throat, a small smile gracing her face. “I know that look.” She glanced over her shoulder at Jughead before turning back. “And I approve. Does this by any chance have any correlation to the motorcycle helmet I saw on your desk when I was chasing after Charlie this morning?”

Betty nodded, not meeting her sister’s eyes. It didn’t matter, though; at the sound of his name, Charlie smiled wickedly, and it was like she was staring into her sister’s face anyway. It was worrisome, really, how much the boys were taking after Polly. Betty knew they would be nightmares as teenagers.

“Betty Cooper, do you have a boyfriend?”

The question was so ridiculous that Betty actually snorted. She saw Jughead look over at her, curious. “Polly, _no_.”

Polly didn’t look convinced. “You’re telling me that you have a motorcycle helmet so that you can ride that James Dean wannabe’s bike?” She covered Marlie’s ears, and Betty knew to do the same. Her sister would say anything. “Or, ya know, ride something else?”

“ _Polly_!”

“Tell me I’m wrong and I’ll drop it.”

Betty tried to calm the fluttering of her heart, but she knew she couldn’t contain the deep blush creeping up her neck. “It isn’t like that. He’s Archie’s roommate, and he writes with me on the paper, and we have a class together. Friends.”

Polly narrowed her eyes. “So you don’t like him.” Betty’s eyes found sudden interest in Charlie’s shirt. Two cartoon frogs were sitting on a log. “So then what’s the hold up?” she demanded when Betty never answered.

Betty pulled Charlie down into her lap, and amazingly, he stayed. She felt tiny fingers start poking up and down her arms. “I don’t think he likes me that way, Polly. We’ve hung out by ourselves a lot, but I’m always the one who initiates any physical contact. I figure he would have made a move by now if he was interested.”

Polly sighed and helped Marlie down. He sat on the pavement and began fiddling with the laces on Polly’s shoes. “Oh, Betty, not all boys are like that. Just like all girls are not waiting for the boy to make the first move, like you are.” She glanced around, looking for Alice. “Seems like we’re both in the boyfriend industry now, though.”

Betty leaned forward and squeezed her sister’s hand. “ _Who_?”

Polly smiled coyly. “He’s a new detective working for the Riverdale Police Department. He got transferred there from New York a few weeks ago.” She lowered her voice and started blushing. “And he’s so cute, Betty. He’s already met the boys, too - Don’t give me that look! It was an accident, we ran into him in the grocery store and I couldn’t pretend they weren’t my kids,” her sister explained quickly.

“Dating is just going to be different with the boys now, Polly. You can’t just let them get attached to everyone you go out with.”

Polly rolled her eyes. “I know that. But it feels different with him. He’s so good with them, and he’s so kind.” Betty’s uneasiness melted away at the gooey look in her sister’s eyes.

Before Betty could ask anything else about this new man, her mother whisked them into the stadium to find their seats.

~

Betty didn’t know whether to be surprised or not that Yale had won. She had not kept up with Yale’s football prowess before.

But she was surprised when her mother accepted the invitation of celebrating at Jughead’s and Archie’s apartment. Polly had tried to tell their mother that the boys were tired and would be getting fussy soon, but Alice could not be persuaded. If the weird tension from earlier meant anything, the win was not going to be the last event of the night.

Betty carried a tired Charlie towards Archie. This particular nephew had taken a liking to Betty, and Betty was not about to deny the affections of a three-year-old. Liking Betty also meant that Charlie liked Archie, as he had been around a lot as the boys were growing up.

She reached out to hug Archie before Charlie could, but she was too slow. The kid all but lunged towards Archie, making Betty nearly drop him.

“Hey, buddy!” Archie said happily, holding the boy high in the air _Lion King_ style. Charlie laughed and reached down to the redhead. When Archie was around the twins, it was hard to deny the red in the twins’ hair. Jason Blossom may have fathered them, but he hadn’t been much help after that. He left Polly in the dust and went on with a football scholarship somewhere. Betty hated to think about her sweet nephews inheriting Jason’s traits.

“You played great, Arch,” Betty said when Charlie stopped making excited noises that were almost words.

Archie looked bewildered. “I can’t believe we won!”

She left Charlie in Archie’s able care and wandered over to the boys’ leather sofa. She saw Jughead’s signature beanie over the top of the back, but he was alone so she approached him. “Room for another?” she asked, startling him. When he saw it was her, he scooted over so she could have some space. “Where’s your dad and Jellybean?”

There was an exhausted look in his eyes that Betty hadn’t seen before. Se didn’t like it there. “She went to the bathroom and dad is probably trying to find a beer in the kitchen.” He said the last part dryly, and Betty thought she understood what he meant.

“Today been overwhelming for you, too?”

He sighed, and he pulled one of his knees to his chest. This was more the relaxed boy that she knew. “Dad’s…” He took his beanie off and rubbed his hands through his hair. Betty hadn’t seen him without his beanie before, and she was again struck by how attractive he was. He set the beanie on the couch’s armrest instead of putting it back in its rightful place. “How about you? The helmet have its desired effect?” He smirked, and he returned to himself more.

Betty had forgotten to text him a thank you this morning because her family had shown up not too much later. “She hasn’t even stepped foot in my room.” He threw his head back and let out a laugh; he sounded like he needed it. She saw the happy noise ebb away at the stress from the day. “I know, right? How ironic that the one time I want her to be nosy, she has a back-to-back itinerary that makes sure she doesn’t step foot into my personal life.”

The smile they shared was short-lived.

“ _Elizabeth._ Get away from that boy.”

Betty started, then turned to see her mother glaring at Jughead. FP stepped behind her. “What, my son not good enough for your daughter, Alice?”

Betty looked over to Jughead, but he was watching the exchange with wide eyes. “Dad-“

“No, son. This is bullshit. Its people like this that make the Serpents have such a bad rep.

 _Serpents._ Jughead wasn’t beside her anymore. He was up, walking toward his Dad like FP was a wild animal that could strike at any time.

“Oh, I’m the one who does that?” Alice’s icy glared hardened as Jughead reached his father’s side. “I have nothing to do with the fact that you and your son here decided to be in some seedy biker gang. But your filthy son will _not_ be around my daughter.” She whirled. “Elizabeth, we’re leaving. Now.”

Betty knew she should be looking at her mother, but she couldn’t tear her eyes away from Jughead. He was staring at her, his expression unreadable.

Betty knew of the Serpents. Everyone did. They were a biker gang that corrupted the Southside and wore leather jackets with a two-headed snake on the back. Her mother had told her stories about them, had all but threatened her if she ever went near any of their hangouts. But like everything Alice said, Betty took it with a grain of salt.

Betty had known that Jughead was a Serpent. She had already put two and two together. But he was looking at her now like she was about to walk away from him, like it _mattered_. That’s what hurt her.

She stood, but didn’t step in any direction. “I _knew_ , Juggie. I knew when I saw your motorcycle. You wear a leather jacket, you’re from the Southside, you drive a motorcycle. You talked about wanting to get away from the reputation your past gave you. Of course I knew.”

Of course Betty knew. Jughead felt stupid now for thinking that she hadn’t. But that meant that she didn’t care. He had been worrying for weeks, and it had never mattered. She was his friend despite himself, not because she didn’t know who he was. Something inside his chest beat, and he wasn’t familiar with it, but he thought it might be his heart waking up.

“What?” he asked, voice soft.

“ _What?_ ” Alice hissed, looking back at her daughter. “Elizabeth, let’s go.”

Betty didn’t make a move. “No, Mom. You don’t even know Jughead.”

“I know his father. It was a snake that gave Eve the apple, Betty.” Alice reached for Betty’s wrist but Betty stepped back.

“I’m sick of carrying your prejudices around my neck, Mom. I’m sick of you telling me what to do and who to be.” Betty swallowed at the poisonous look taking over Alice’s face. She tried to call on whatever had given her courage in the first place, but it seemed to have left her. She determinedly looked at her mother. “I’m done letting you control my life. I think you should go home.”

Alice stared at her daughter for a moment, then whirled on her heel. “Polly, let’s go. I don’t want my grandchildren around such trash.”

Everyone in the room looked at Polly to see what she would do. She switched Marlie to her other hip and shook her head. “I can choose who my own children are around. And right now you are not being a kind, respectful influence.”

Alice threw her hands into the air. “Fine! The Southside can have my whole family for all I care. You girls will be crawling back to me in no time.” She stomped to the door and opened it, revealing Veronica with her hand about to knock on the door herself. Alice groaned and stormed past her.

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well...
> 
> Tell me your thoughts!
> 
> Thanks for reading :)
> 
> I kind of made Polly's character more of a wild card here because I find her character in the show to be so bland.
> 
> Follow confirmedbugheadtrash on tumblr for writing updates!


	6. Snowball Effect

That night, Veronica didn't come home. Betty knew where she was. Jughead didn't dare show up this time, though.

Instead, he tossed around in his bed, trying to drown out the moans and laughter coming from his roommate's room. Archie and Veronica were happy, and that twisted his gut and echoed around the emptiness in his chest.

He had been happy for a moment. He had never really thought much of girls until he had met Betty. She had a sweet exterior shrouding her rebellious interior, just the opposite of Jughead. Spending time with her felt like something he had been missing out on for all of his life. He didn't understand it.

Or, he pretended not to understand it. Because understanding it meant acknowledging it, and that could lead to a snowball effect he wasn't sure he would live through.

Something in Betty's wide, blue eyes haunted him now, and he knew it would haunt him long after she gave up on him. If she hadn't already.

He had been so foolish to not expect Betty to know that he was a Serpent. His ego took a dive. He had always considered himself smart, but as the hurt etched itself into Betty's features, he felt dumb for the first time in his life.

He eventually realized that what he felt now was sadness for something that hadn't even happened. He was grieving over a loss that wasn't even his in the first place. Because of course Betty would be hurt by this. She had shared her story about wanting to break out from her mother, and he had _lied_ to her. He choked on the word now, not believing he had done it. Perhaps the only person who had seen him for himself, and he had self-sabotaged. Betty hadn't realized she was dealing with a ticking time bomb.

All the dreams and hopes he had in the past month - of holding her hand, cupping her cheek, tasting her - they left him then. They were replaced by a sadness so steep he couldn't see the bottom of it.

And then there was the white envelope, slightly dirty and with one corner rumpled, sitting on his desk. It was taunting him, really, even though the light wasn’t on and he could barely see it with the help of the moonlight coming in through his window. He didn’t have to open it to know what it was. His initials were on the outside, _J.J._ , and in that daunting, familiar handwriting. It was an order, from the Serpents, hand-delivered to him by his own father. Jughead thought that he had gotten far enough out of their grasp, but it looked like the Serpents had found a need for him in New Haven. He wasn’t interested in crime, but he couldn’t see the Serpents approving of his new interest in literature.

He knew he shouldn't, but he reached for his phone anyway, and called her. It was like grabbing a cookie off the pan right when it came out of the oven, knowing you would get burned, but willing to do anything for the sweetness.

"Juggy," she whispered. Her voice was raspy, and Jughead wondered why he had never tried to talk to her at 2am before.

"Betts," he said back. He had called her, but he didn't have anything to say. He knew it was her who needed to talk, but she would never have called him to get it off her chest. He braced himself for the words that would come out of her mouth. _I don't think we can hang out anymore. I can't trust you._

"Tell me something," she said quietly. For a moment, he couldn't believe what he was hearing. But her small "please" that followed made everything clear.

The thud of his heart covered the noise coming from the other room. "I think I could love you one day."

For a moment, everything stopped. He didn't know why he said it, other than the blatant fact that it was true, and he was done lying to her. He could see himself loving her, though, if they were given enough time to figure it all out. The leaves were turning colors for the fall, and Jughead knew he could change, too - wanted to change - so Betty never looked at him like she had earlier ever again.

"Yeah," she said.

Jughead sighed. "Yeah."

"Goodnight, Jughead."

~

Betty couldn't make herself show up to class Monday morning. She emailed her teacher the next chapter in their writing assignment and an excuse about getting sick over the weekend, but otherwise made no move to get out of her bed. She wasn't ready to face Jughead yet. She couldn't just go back to how things were after all the things that came to light this weekend.

She was tired anyway. Yesterday, she had driven Polly and the boys back to their apartment right outside of Riverdale. It was a couple hours drive there, and then she stalled for a bit, helping out with the boys. By the time she made it back to campus, it was late.

A few hours later, she dragged herself out of bed to find some food. She had no interest in going to the dining hall, in fear of seeing someone, and she had finished the last of her dorm snacks a few days ago, so she bundled up to go out.

Although it was the very beginning of October, there was a chill in the air that hinted at the winter that was to come. She could have walked to the coffee shop she had in mind, but she didn’t have the energy this morning so she walked to where her car was parked.

She ordered a blueberry muffin and a vanilla latte, glancing around the shop as the cashier rang her up. It was relatively empty, but she remembered that it was technically still Monday morning. No doubt most of the college was recovering from a tiring weekend of touring around their families. It crossed her mind that maybe not everyone’s family was like hers - maybe some actually enjoyed each other’s company without draining their energy.

“Uh, miss? Your card is being declined.”

Betty looked at the boy behind the counter. “Maybe try it again? Its old and the strip is wearing off the back.”

She watched nervously as he swiped her credit card again, and then one more time to prove it. “I’m sorry,” he said uneasily. His ears tinted pink like it was he who was getting declined, not her. She wanted to smile at his friendliness, but now wasn’t the time for that.

“Let me check if I have cash,” she said, digging around in her purse. She was only able to pull up six crinkled one dollar bills. “I guess just the latte, then.” The dining hall had food, but it didn’t have specialty coffee. She would just have to put her big girl pants on. “Sorry.”

While she waited for her coffee, she called Polly. “Morning, Betty. Everything okay?” Her sister sounded apprehensive, and the idea in Betty’s head all but solidified.

“What was the first thing to go when Mom basically disowned you?” she asked, not wanting to waste time with formalities.

“Oh, Betty…” Polly sounded so much older than she was just then. “The money.”

Betty sighed. “My credit card got declined this morning.”

“What are you going to do?”

Betty accepted her latte from the boy behind the counter and then turned to leave. “I guess I have to get a job around here.”

“You might want to hurry. Next came the bills. She sent me my phone bill, my doctor bills. What all is she paying for you?”

Betty wracked her brain. “I think its just my phone bill. Fortunately Yale pays for all my college expenses.”

“I can send you something to get you started. I have a little bit saved u-“

“Polly, no. You have the boys to worry about. I’m going to get a job pretty quickly and then it’ll just be a matter of spending carefully.” She started up the stairs of her dorm building. Her and Veronica were on the third floor of the building, and she secretly loved the extra exercise she got from walking up the stairs so many times a day. “Please don’t worry about me.”

Betty put her phone in her bag as she turned onto the landing of her dorm. She stopped when se saw Jughead pacing in front of her door. “Hey, Jughead.”

“Betty.” Her name came out in a high voice that made him cringe. “I was gonna check on you because you weren’t in class today.”

He stepped aside so she could unlock her door. “I was tired.”

He nodded. Words went flat on his tongue, so he went with what he knew best. “I’m sorry.”

She was about to turn the doorknob, but she stopped and turned to him. “It was never going to matter to me, Juggy.”

“I should have known that,” he said, looking at his feet. “You’re too kind for that.”

He looked up in time to see her smile for a moment before it slipped away. It took all restraint within himself to not grin from ear to ear. That smile of hers was a sign of hope. She had thrown him a lifeline.

He had been afraid when she hadn’t shown up to class this morning. He spent most of the class mentally kicking himself for his confession to her over the phone the night before. He had betrayed her trust, and then he just threw that kind of promise of things to come out there. He was worried that she didn’t want him to try to make good on his word. Even worse, he was scared that he wouldn’t be able to live up to it the way that Betty deserved.

“Give me a few days, okay?” She reached out and curled her hand in the hem of his open flannel.

~

Betty had been working for almost three weeks. She had found easy money in a new bakery that was about ten minutes drive away from Yale. Luckily, she had gone snooping around for a job right before they opened and they still had a few spots to fill.

She wasn’t new to baking. Her and Polly had baked quite a lot growing up, because it was one of the activities that their mother thought would get them in the least trouble. At least she had honed her baking skills from her overprotected childhood.

The shop turned on its lights nine in the morning, but Betty normally had come and gone by that time. She would get up around five four days a week and go in and bake fresh goods alongside the owner. She was a lovely woman named Eloise who had a two year old child named Kat that paraded around the shop in a tiara.

On weekends, Betty would forego the morning shift and instead work the front of the shop in the afternoons. She enjoyed the baking bit more, but when she worked the front counter, she accumulated tips and didn’t have to wake up so early.

Today was one of those fortunate Saturdays where she slept until ten and woke up to the smell of Veronica making coffee in the kitchen. When she withdrew out of her cave, she was surprised to find Archie sitting on their couch in what looked like pajama pants.

Betty smirked when the redhead looked slightly embarrassed. “Wow, you got here early, Arch. It would’ve been easier to just stay here overnight.”

He chuckled. “You caught me. This is the first time I’ve stayed over, though.” He stood up and followed her into the kitchen. “Is this weird?”

She thought about it as she fixed herself a cup of coffee. This past summer, it would have been weird. Betty had yet to completely finalize her feelings for Archie, but once she got to Yale, she had been relieved to know that those feelings had stayed behind in Riverdale High. Some poor young girl would have to take up Betty’s job pining after that generation’s football star.

Plus, she had been preoccupied with a different boy. His words still made a flush sear her chest. _I think I could love you one day._ She smiled and thought of the boy in question.

He had given her a few days, like she had asked. She needed some time to get over her hurt feelings. He had apologized, and Betty wasn’t one for grudges. After a week, Betty felt normal around him again, if only a little bit more reserved. Although she was forgiving, she wasn’t naive. Jughead would have to prove to her that he deserved her trust. And hell if he hadn’t been trying his hardest.

Although she felt normal around him, that didn’t mean that they pretended like he hadn’t said those soft words to her. Something had shifted in their dynamic. He would reach out and brush a strand of Betty’s hair out of her face, his finger leaving a burning trail where he had gingerly touched her skin. He would hesitantly lay his arm atop the booth behind Betty’s shoulders when they went out to eat with Veronica and Archie. She found it endearing how his ears would pink each time he touched her, and he wouldn’t meet her eyes.

“Betty?”

Archie broke into her thoughts and she turned to look at him. “Sorry. No, its not weird. But it will be weird if I start hearing you do it with Ronnie like Jughead always complains about.” He had the decency to at least fake looking apologetic.

“B, you’re up! Archie and I are going into New York City for the weekend. I’m in dire need of some shopping. Want me to get you anything while I’m gone?” She poured herself some coffee before coming up beside Archie and leaning her head on his shoulder. “Need a dress or anything for any upcoming events?”

Betty thought about her almost-empty wallet and shook her head. She knew Veronica would never make Betty pay her back, but Betty would have at least like to think she could have. “The only thing coming up is Halloween, and I can find something in a costume shop for cheap.”

Veronica’s eyes widened. “I almost forgot about Halloween. No doubt there will be a party that we can grace with our presence.” She winked at Betty. “We’re going to go to Archie’s to get his bag and then we’ll be off.” She rushed forward and kissed Betty’s cheek. “Love you.”

“Love you, V.” And then the hurricane known as Veronica Lodge was gone, Archie following in her wake.

With the dorm to herself, she took her time getting ready for her afternoon shift. Eloise didn't particularly care what Betty wore to work so long as she looked like she had showered, so Betty pulled on a pair of jeans and a loose, thick black sweater. Jughead had offered it to her one night when the four of them had gone out to eat and Betty hadn't brought a jacket, but now she had no intentions of giving it back. It was soft, and it smelled like motor oil and grass, just like Jughead, and there was a hole in the collar that gave it a well-worn and favored feeling.

The one time she had worn it around Jughead he had smirked the entire twenty minutes they were together, so Betty tried to make sure she only wore it when she didn't plan on seeing him. He had been entirely too smug.

When twelve-thirty rolled around, Betty walked to her car. It as definitely too cold to walk to the bakery now, but he world had other plans for Betty this morning. She cursed when she cranked up her car and saw her gas light on. She didn't need to look in her wallet to know that she didn't have money to put towards gas.

The only person she could think to call for a ride was Jughead, but she wasn't sure if he was awake yet. He was known for sleeping in horrendously late on the weekends to make up for how late he stayed up every night and how early he had to get up on week days. Veronica and Archie were well on their way to New York City by then.

With nothing else to do, Betty pulled the sleeves of Jughead's sweater around her hands and started walking towards the bakery. She had barely walked three minutes when she heard a familiar noice behind her. She turned with a sub-par smile as Jughead steered his motorcycle to the curb.

"Betty, what are you doing? Its freezing," he said, taking off his helmet.

She watched as his hair fell back into place as he slid his helmet off. When he met her eyes, she blinked innocently, although he knew she had been watching. At least he wasn't smirking at his sweater. "Just a nice leisurely stroll to work. What about you?"

He frowned. "Why aren't you driving?"

She bit her lip. She hadn't exactly told any of her friends that her mother had cut her off after Family Weekend. It would have included too much pity. "I don't have gas."

He raised an eyebrow at her short answer. "There is a gas station literally two minutes away from campus."

She shrugged. She didn't want to tell him, but how hypocritical of her would it be to expect him to tell her things while she was hiding something? "I don't have money." He frowned deeper. "My mom cut me off after Family Weekend. That's why I got the job at the bakery."

She looked down then, but she knew he had climbed off his bike because his black chucks appeared next to her feet on the sidewalk. He tugged on her arm, and it was all Betty could do to step gently into him instead of launching into his chest. They hadn't hugged before, and she felt the stiffness in Jughead's arms as he hesitantly wrapped them around her shoulders, but she squeezed his waist tightly nonetheless.

It was over in a second, and when Jughead pulled away he wore a determined look. He shrugged off his lined denim jacket and handed it to her. "Look, give me your keys and I'll drive back and get your helmet, and then I'll give you a ride to work."

"Ju-"

"No ma'am!" He fixed her with a stern look and pulled his helmet back over his head. "Sit down and put on my jacket and don't argue with me, Betty, because I know where you sleep."

Betty rolled her eyes but followed his instructions and watched him ride back towards campus. He was back in no time, her helmet resting between his legs. She was struck again by how _hot_ Jughead was, especially riding towards her on his bike. She flushed when he winked at her when he pulled up to the curb.

He didn't drive off like Betty had expected him to once she got off the bike, but turned it off and put down his kickstand. "Nice sweater, by the way," he said under his breath as he followed Betty into the bakery.

"What are you doing?" Betty asked under her breath, not looking at him to hide her pink cheeks. She had thought She had gotten off that time, but no such luck.

Jughead shrugged and scanned the display case over her shoulder. "Its too quiet at the apartment and I was on my way to find a place to get some homework done. I heard the service here was _great_."

Betty put a finger into his chest and looked at him with narrow eyes. "You can stay as long as you behave and you keep buying things."

He winked again and Betty with a shake of her head. When she looked up, her boss was smiling at her from behind the counter, a knowing look in her eyes. "Good afternoon, Betty. We have company today?"

Betty set her bag and her helmet under the counter and looked at her boss. "Is it okay if he stays? I didn't have gas and he gave me a ride to work. I told him he had to keep buying things."

Eloise chuckled and pointed to something over Betty's shoulder. "I think he'll be just fine." She turned and Elouise's daughter was climbing up the chair across from Jughead. Jughead was watching her with a nervous horror that brought a smile to Betty's face. His motorcycle helmet, flannel, and grey beanie stood out like a sore thumb in the girlish and bright bakery, but he tried his best to make himself at home.

Every so often the young girl would drag Jughead to the counter and point out a cupcake or brownie that she said he _had_ to try. He would pay for the treat and then drop a dollar in Betty’s tip jar. By the end of her shift, she had eight dollars just from Jughead.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm very nervous for this chapter to be out in the public eye...
> 
> Thank you for all the comments and for reading :) I'd love to continue hearing what you think!


	7. Breathe

Although Jughead would deny it, he enjoyed the attention of the little girl while he sat in the bakery. She reminded him of Jellybean, who had been texting him all day. He would also deny the thoughts that Betty's baked goods were better than anything he ever tasted. (He was pretty sure he was biased.) What he couldn't deny, though, was how much he was looking forward to Betty ending her shift so she would be pressed against him again on the back of the bike.

It hadn't happened since their trip to Denny's, and he had dreamed of it too often to not miss it. He sent her a wink when he noticed that she and her boss were starting to shut down for the night. With a bid goodnight to the little princess, he collected his things and waited outside at his bike.

When she finally came outside, she gave him a tired grin. “You didn’t have to stay all day, Juggy. You could have just come back to get me when we closed.”

He had the decency to look offended. “And miss watching you be forced into friendly pleasantries with customers? Not likely.” She rolled her eyes. “Now saddle up, Bets. We have a stop to make before we head back Yale.”

With a grin she put on her helmet and nestled into his back. It was a place she had not expected to miss, but had missed it dearly anyway. Strangers they passed on the streets would see two kids with goofy grins and sparking eyes through helmet shields. It was here that it was easiest to be Betty and Jughead, Jughead and Betty.

They couldn’t see each other’s faces. They were free to feel how they wanted to without having the other person watching. Here they were just bodies pressed together in warmth and from a need to be close to each other. They just were.

It was always harder when the bike stopped and they pulled their helmets off to reveal pink cheeks and nervous smiles.

Jughead felt uneasy when he pulled the bike into a parking spot at Lighthouse Point Park. He had read about it earlier in the day while Betty was working. He had got enough school work done while she was at the bakery that he could slack off for the rest of the night. He knew she had been extremely busy with school the past few weeks and wanted to take her somewhere to relax.

He took his helmet off and turned to look at her over his shoulder. Her face was _close_. Jughead held his breath and made himself focus on anything but the lack of distance between their noses, their mouths, theirs cheeks. Betty Cooper was nothing short of distracting. Thankfully she was distracted herself, looking quizzically at where he had taken her.

“We’re at the beach…at the start of winter?”

He sighed and climbed off his bike. “That’s not the focus of this little excursion, but thank you for pointing that out.” She grinned smugly at him and followed him up to a white building that stood between them and the beach. When he held the door open for her and the atmosphere leaked out into the air, she understood. “This is what we’re here for.”

She let out a giggle - a _giggle_ , for crying out loud - and Jughead’s heart thudded in his cold chest. Betty walked further into the building, pulling Jughead in behind her and leading him further into the chaos.

The main reason he brought her here was the shiny, spinning carousel in the middle of the building. It dated back to the 1920s and still had original oil paintings decorating the outsides. The giddiness he saw in Betty’s face was what he had so badly wanted.

What he hadn’t expected, though, was the other things here that he knew Betty was loving. On the other side of the carousel, in a smaller part of the building, a band was playing music and people of all ages were dancing on the adjoining dance floor. Looking out of the large windows he could see the water, the sand, and a boardwalk that he knew he would be walking down later that night.

“We have to ride,” Betty turned to him and gave him puppy dog eyes, not realizing that he would do her bidding without any effort on her part.

She pulled him into the short line and he gave her a dollar for their ride. She rolled her eyes and tried to shove it back towards his chest. “Juggy, you gave me eight dollars in tips today. I can get this.”

He put his hand on her purse. “Betty Cooper, that is your hard-earned money. Don’t be so _frivolous_.” He smirked when she rolled her eyes, but she let her purse hang on her shoulder again. When it was their turn, he followed behind Betty as she walked through the sea of colorful horses.

While she was deliberating between a unicorn and a white riding horse, Jughead leaned down and shoved an envelope into the siding of one of the carriages on the carousel. Just as quickly, he was at her side. _Done._

“I’d definitely go wth the unicorn.”

Betty used his shoulder to help her up on her horse and then Jughead went to the riding horse beside her. As the ride began to spin and the music and lights started, she turned to him and flashed him a shy smile. It sent a bolt of electricity through him. A girl had never looked at him like Betty did.

He pulled his phone out and took a picture of her once her back was turned, and then before he knew it she was leading him to the dance floor as the band was playing an old rock song that he vaguely remembered from his childhood. His mother, among her faults, at least had a decent taste in music.

Every muscle in Jughead’s body wanted to freeze up, and Betty sensed it. “C’mon, Juggy, its just you and I. You got this,” she whispered, hers hands finding his and moving his arms with hers. They looked silly, they were both painfully aware, but once Betty started laughing and her hair started to shake loose from her ponytail, Jughead couldn’t find a fuck to give about how dumb he looked. This blonde angel dancing in front of him was all that mattered.

After a few songs, the band picked a slower song and Jughead hesitantly put his hand on Betty’s lower back. She stepped into him and for a second he couldn’t breathe and he hated it and loved it all at once.

Suddenly it was all too much and not enough, and Jughead’s brain was at war. He didn’t let people in. They left, they disappointed you. Everything he touched had always turned to smoke. Yet Betty put her chin on his sternum and gazed up at him, invading all of his boundaries. The warning sirens were going off in his head, but her smile was louder.

Slowly, he cupped the back of her neck. “Betts,” he whispered.

He noticed her swallow. “Yeah?”

“What would happen if I kissed you?”

Betty’s smile turned into a mischievous grin and she raised an eyebrow. “Oh, Juggy.” She patted his cheek, once, twice for finality. “Maybe one day you’ll find out.”

Then she was gone, her blonde hair flying behind her as she ran for the beach. Jughead stood dazed for a moment before he followed.

~

With Jughead's birthday being eclipsed by Halloween just like he liked it, and Veronica making Betty and Jughead dress up as Boo and Sully from Monsters Inc., and the horribleness that was midterms week, it was no surprise that Thanksgiving was already there.

Archie offered a place at his and Fred's table for Thanksgiving, but Betty said no. It would have been too much to be that close to her house, her spiteful mother sitting inside by herself. Polly invited her to have Thanksgiving at her apartment, but again she said no. Riverdale didn't feel like her home anymore, didn't feel like it would welcome her with open arms.

Instead, she planned a Thanksgiving in her dorm. Polly, the twins, and Cop Boyfriend were coming up, bringing a store-bought turkey. Jellybean was staying with Jughead in New Haven while she was off from school for the holiday, so the two of them would be coming over, too.

Betty woke up that morning with a somewhat heavy heart, but pushed on nonetheless, with a little help from the Macy's Day Parade. Her boss, Eloise, had shared a recipe for sweet potato pie with her the previous day after work, and Betty had stopped on the way home to get the ingredients. She had just put the pie in the oven when there was a knock on the door.

She opened the door to a tight hug from Jellybean. "Betty!" the girl said excitedly, like they had met more than one time. Betty didn't know, but anyone who made her older brother less broody was a saint in Jellybean's book. When the young dark-haired girl pulled back, she held out a covered dish. "Jug said that I didn't need to do anything, but I like to cook. This is a green bean casserole that I've been making for me and Jug and dad the past few Thanksgivings."

Before Betty could thank her, Jughead stepped into the doorway. "Its one of my favorite things that the little rugrat can make," he teased, shyly looking at Betty. It took a moment to register that he was holding a bundle of gorgeous yellow sunflowers wrapped at the bottom with brown paper. "Happy Thanksgiving, Betts," he said in a small voice.

Jellybean rolled her eyes at the whole situation before heading to the kitchen to give them a second. When she was out of sight, Betty stepped delicately into Jughead's side and squeezed his waist. "Oh, Juggy," she whispered, grinning at the blush creeping up his neck.

She had said that a lot to him since he asked if he could kiss her, and each time it meant the same thing. But here he was, spending this pathetic Thanksgiving with her, with flowers for her and an actual smile on his face. She was done waiting. She stood up on her toes and ghosted a kiss on the edge of his mouth, so quick that Jughead was almost sure that he had imagined it.

And just as quickly, Betty was off into the kitchen with Jellybean, leaving him in the doorway on some kind of disbelieving high. If this was what drugs felt like, Jughead could see why there were so many addicts in the world. He could very quickly become addicted to Betty Cooper.

An hour later, Polly and her boyfriend showed up, each holding a twin. "Happy Thanksgiving!" Betty called to them, rushing to hug her sister. The sisters shared a long squeeze before acknowledging everyone else. Jughead smirked at the way Betty was sizing up Polly's boyfriend; Betty was full of fire. "I'm Betty," she said, extending her hand.

The man, dark-haired and broad, had the decency to look nervous. "I'm Rob Holden," he replied. He was holding Charlie, and when he noticed Betty, the boy lunged towards her. Rob laughed and handed him over. "He was talking about seeing his Aunt Betty the whole ride here."

"Can you blame him, though?" Jughead asked, walking forward. He shook the man's hand. "Jughead Jones."

There was a slight falter in the man's demeanor. "Are you FP Jones's boy?"

Jughead looked at Betty, who was studying Rob even harder now. "Yeah."

Polly cleared her throat. "Hey, Rob, why don't you go get the food out of the truck?"

He held eye contact with Jughead for a moment before smiling at Polly and excusing himself.

"Pol…" Betty began.

"What am I missing?" Jughead asked.

Polly smiled apologetically. "Um, Rob is a new detective in Riverdale. He was brought in because there's been some problems with the Serpents."

Betty stepped closer to Jughead, who swallowed hard. "My dad-"

Polly shrugged, frowning. "I don't know anything about it, Jughead. Rob doesn't talk to me about work."

"Polly, its Thanksgiving! He can't investigate Jug over the turkey," Betty said indignantly. Jughead felt her fingers curl around his arm, protective.

Polly set down Marlie. "Look, I'll go talk to him. It'll be fine, promise."

When she left to go find Rob, Betty looked up at Jughead. All the nervousness and bliss they had shared earlier was gone. "I'm sorry. I'll take care of it if he messes with you."

Jughead sighed, looking over Betty's shoulder to Jellybean playing on her phone in the kitchen. "If my dad is doing something shady that is putting Jellybean in danger, I need to know about it."

Betty frowned, but nodded. Before they could talk about it anymore, the timer on the oven went off. She squeezed his arm before going to take the pie out. Jellybean talked pleasantly while Betty finished getting everything ready. It pained Jughead to listen to her, because it was obvious that his sister had missed normal human interaction. She hadn’t talked nearly this much when he had lived at home, and that told him that Jellybean and his father weren’t communicating very well. That could get lonely.

Soon enough they each had a paper plate piled mediocrely high, and grasped plastic forks and knives. Betty and Veronica didn’t have a table big enough or enough chairs, so they were spaced out in the living room, some sitting on the floor. Everyone was smiling; there was laughter. All at once Betty was overcome with sadness and freedom.

If her mother could see them now, she would turn up her nose - only her mother didn’t care enough to look.

Betty fought the tears back, certain they would make an appearance once she was alone.

~

Jellybean had gone to the restroom, and Betty and Polly were putting the boys down for a nap. It was now or never.

Rob was sitting on the couch drinking a beer. He seemed to have the same idea, because as soon as they were alone, he turned to face Jughead.

“What’s my dad involved in?” Jughead demanded, sharp eyes and mouth ready.

Rob cleared his throat and set the beer down on the coffee table. “There’s been some illegal items being sold all over Riverdale. Drugs, stolen cars, stolen jewelry. We suspect the Serpents, but we haven’t found anything incriminating. There’s no sign of any money that they would be getting for the things they’re selling.”

White envelopes flashed in Jughead’s memory. After that first envelope, there had been more. Every now and then he would get a cryptic text about a pick-up and drop-off place. “My dad?” he pressed, banishing the thoughts. He can’t look guilty with a cop studying him five feet away.

“You know as well as I do that FP is one of the ring leaders in the Serpents.” He shrugged, and Jellybean walked back into the living room, and their conversation was over. Jughead was far from satisfied, but he didn’t want his sister in on this mess.

When Betty's family left later that evening, a sadness hit Betty that cut her to the core. Jughead saw the moment it happened, when Betty's friendly face cracked, and she covered her mouth before the sobs came. She tore from the living room where her, Jughead, and Jellybean were watching TV.

Jellybean frowned before getting up. "I'll just walk back to your apartment, okay? Its not that far and its still light out."

Jughead didn't want his sister to walk alone in the cold, but the thought of Betty's heart breaking by herself kept him from protesting. "Take my jacket, okay? My apartment key is in the pocket. And text me when you get there."

When he cracked open Betty's bedroom door, it was dark and all he could hear was the sounds of her sobbing. He slipped out of his Chucks and gingerly sat on the bed, rubbing circles into her back. "Betts, what is it? What happened?"

She shifted so he could see her tear-stained cheeks. "I'm sorry," she said, choking on the words.

He shook his head. "Baby, no, don't apologize. Come here." He tugged on the sleeves of her sweater gently, and then she was clinging to his chest, her fists catching in his shirt. "Talk to me, please."

Her voice was muffled against his chest. "Today was so different. Mom doesn't want me, or Polly. I'm eighteen and am spending holidays alone." She took a big gulp of air. "Its not how it should be, Juggy."

Jughead's heart broke right beside hers. He had had years of living with a broken family. Because it had happened so many years ago, Jughead was nearly numb to the brokenness of his family. If it weren’t for Jellybean, he might not even get bothered by it anymore.

But for Betty, the crack in her family was fresh. Her mother had left her only a month ago. It wasn’t old hat, it wasn’t a familiar swell of pain in her chest. It pulsed, it bled. She had been strong about it; he had yet to hear her say a bad thing about her mother since the incident, yet to hear her complain about working. But strong though she be, Betty Cooper wasn’t invincible.

His hand found the back of her neck, fingers mussing the baby hairs there. “I’m sorry, Betts.” Truth was, he couldn’t understand someone not wanting Betty. The thought of not wanting her by his side was foreign to him now, even though they only met a few months ago. He couldn’t understand Alice banishing her daughter, this strong, beautiful, smart women in his arms. It didn’t make sense.

They stayed like that for an immeasurable amount of time. When Betty finally stirred, she looked up at him with childlike, hurting eyes. “Will you stay with me tonight?”

He didn’t have the heart nor the want to tell her no. She pulled him down into her mattress, their limbs tangling. Jughead couldn’t breathe.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Full disclosure: This is the last of the chapters that I have prewritten for this story. That being said, the month of July is one of the busier months for me. I will most likely only update with a new chapter once a week. So, every Wednesday. 
> 
> I know it'll slow things down, but, the story is almost over so it will drag it out longer for everyone to enjoy!
> 
> Thank you to every single person that reads and writes comments! I cherish and squeal over each one :)


	8. Devil Eyes

Betty woke to snow outside her window, puffy eyes, and soft snoring. She twisted her head to see Jughead’s head sharing her pillow, a dark spot of drool on the pillow case. His beanie was cast to the side, nearly falling off the edge of the bed. Jughead’s warm fingers splayed on Betty’s hip underneath her shirt.

It was a lot to process.

Not wanting to, but knowing she had to, she twisted so she was facing him. “Juggy,” she said quietly. “Wake up, Juggy.”

He groaned and opened one eye, glaring at her through it. “I know this is new for us, Betts, but its common courtesy to let your bed-friend sleep in.”

She blushed at his words. “Stop whining or you won’t be allowed back in my bed,” she threatened, empty. She had slept like a baby last night, and she knew it wasn’t coincidence.

He smirked, turning over to lay on his stomach. She instantly missed the warmth from his hand. “Go away,” he mumbled against the pillow.

She rolled her eyes and pulled her blankets off of him. He twisted violently to glare at her, both eyes open now. “Its snowing. You need to get to Jellybean before the roads ice over.”

He looked over to the window, as if she were lying. Sure enough, light puffs of white were falling from the sky and he could see it coating the ground.

“I gave the rugrat my coat,” he whined, swinging his legs off the side of the bed.

She handed him his beanie as he stood up. “I still have your black sweater…”

He smirked again. “If you let me wear it, it’ll smell more like me when you steal it again.”

Betty ducked under the covers before he could see how scarlet every ounce of visible skin was. “Its hanging in the closet, you monster!” She heard him chuckle and then some shuffling as he rearranged his layers of clothing to accommodate the sweater. When she didn’t hear anything, she pulled the blanket down and she saw him, leaning against her closet. His arms were crossed and he was smiling at her. “What?”

He pushed himself off the wall in one fluid motion. “Just waiting for a proper goodbye.”

She raised her eyebrows. “Well… _bye_.”

He was smirking again and Betty was having trouble controlling how fast her chest was going up and down. Swiftly, he bent over her, his hand cupping the back of her neck to pull her closer to his face. He stopped, studying her face. “I’m going to do it this time,” he whispered. His breath fanned across her face, warm.

She squirmed. It was everything she could do not to lunge up at him. “Well do it then,” she whispered back.

He didn't need to be told twice.

~

Jughead had desperately missed his little sister. He would punch anyone who said so, but he looked down at her with stars in her eyes as she promptly kicked his ass at Black Ops.

It was nearing one in the morning, and they had shared a six pack of Mike's Hard Lemonades, and had been playing video games for about five hours.

"Dude, you _suck_ ," she teased, as she shot his character and his half of the screen went momentarily black. "You must spend too much time studying instead of playing video games. Priorities, Jug, priorities."

He snorted and threw his controller towards her. She dodged it and then reached for the cardboard pizza box between them. The snow had gotten harder as the day had progressed, so Jughead called in a pizza before the roads closed down. Betty had texted him that she was going to get a head start on finals - which was such a Betty thing to do; even this new rebellious Betty wanted to succeed - so he hadn't heard from her much. Archie and Veronica were both coming back tomorrow morning for the Yale-Harvard football game, given that it stopped snowing.

So for a short 24 hours, it was just Jughead and Jellybean. It had been like that when they were at home, because FP was either gone or didn't care enough to hang out with them even when he was home, but here, in New Haven, far away from the trailer park, it felt better. He wished that Jellybean could stay but knew she would be leaving Sunday morning.

Which led him to the thing he had been putting off. "Hey, Jellybean, can we talk for a second?"

She raised one of her eyebrows as she stuffed her face with cheese pizza, extra cheese. When she had swallowed, she asked, "This is about Dad?" Jughead shrugged, but they both knew. "I heard you talking to the detective yesterday."

Jughead shook his head. Why wasn't he surprised? "Of course you were." She smirked at him before taking another bite of pizza. "Do you know anything?"

She decided she needed something stronger than pizza and picked up one of the lemonade bottles. "The Serpents are doing something, Jug. I don't know if its the stolen things like the detective said, but something is going on. Everyone is being shady and quiet. And like, _yeah they're a gang and they're shady by right_ , but like, something's off."

Jughead clenched his jaw; guilt pooled in his stomach. "They've had me doing money runs. I have no clue where the money is coming from though."

They were quiet for a moment. "I could find out," Jellybean finally whispered.

An ugly thing came alive in Jughead's chest. "No. I'm serious!" He stood up, glaring down at her. He was imaging what all could happen to her if she tried to get involved. Their dad was well-respected by the Serpents, but that didn't mean his kids were any safer than anyone else's. He remembered what one of the guys had told him when he was little and had witnessed the man bloodying someone up. _Snitches get stitches._ "You're going to stay out of it."

He stomped off to his bedroom, leaving Jellybean sitting in the glow of the TV.

~

Betty held it together while she listened to Archie talking about his annual Thanksgiving dinner with his dad. His mom had even come back from Chicago to spend the day with him.

Betty was fine.

She listened as Veronica talked about this fancy restaurant that her parents dragged her to, where her parents made snide remarks to each other in disguise of niceties. Before she had left New York, Veronica's dad gave her a diamond bracelet and her mother gave her a new designer purse, both peace offerings. Veronica hadn't even brought them with her into the dorm, but left them in her Mercedes.

Betty was _fine_.

She tipped another shot of whiskey into the styrofoam cup of coke she had bought once they were in the stadium, before sticking her flask back into her leather boot and walking out of the bathroom stall. Ronnie was waiting for her outside the bathroom, her own hot chocolate spiked with the liquor of her choice.

They stepped together and Veronica looped her arm with Betty's. "Darling B, tell me what's up." Betty thought she meant why Betty had been in such a bad mood and was preparing an answer when Veronica continued. " _Dead_ head has been giving you heart eyes all day."

Betty blushed and took a sip of her drink. If she was going to get into this with her dramatic, meddling roommate, she was going to need some help. "There have been some new developments."

Veronica spun on her heels and stopped them in their tracks. Annoyed football fans went around them, giving them slight glares. "Forfeit the deets, B."

Betty was saved from answering when Jughead and Jellybean rounded the corner, both of their hands full of food. Jughead extended a small bag of popcorn towards Betty. "You two ready to go?"

Veronica glared at her through slitted eyes, but Betty smiled sweetly at her. "We sure are."

The four of them wove through the stands, trying to find their seats. They had seats in the student section, which was always wild and crowded. They passed several people painted blue, one of them screaming "Harvard sucks!" to them as they passed. Jellybean yelled something back in agreement, making Jughead's ears go pink.

Despite having a few years of cheerleading under her belt, Betty didn't understand all there was to know about football. She just knew enough to know when to cheer, which was all she had ever needed to know. She watched Archie's number, 12, as he ran up and down the field, and winced whenever someone tried to tackle him.

Veronica was a bit more into it, but she had to be, claiming it was part of her girlfriend duties. Betty didn't want to know what else her friend had to do to fulfill her _duty_.

Jughead and Jellybean seemed the most into the game, and Betty spent most of the four hours freezing in the cold and watching Jughead with his sister. Jughead had never been anything but kind to Betty, but it was different now. He was softer, more rounded at the edges. Betty found she was more attracted to this version of him than the version of him riding towards her on his motorcycle in a leather jacket, and that was saying something.

Yale ended up beating Harvard, and so ensued several different parties around campus that night. Archie was begging them to go with him to a party the football team was going to, but Jughead wasn't sure about bringing his fifteen year old sister to a college party. Sharing beer with her while they played video games in his apartment was one thing, but bringing her to a wild drunken college party was an entirely different beast.

Jellybean put her hands on her hips, staring up at her brother. "Are you kidding? Our dad is in a _gang_ , Jughead. _You're_ in a gang! And you're telling me I can't handle a party?"

She had won that argument.

When they stepped foot in the house, Jughead gave Jellybean a wild-eyed look. There were so many people, most already drunk, and the noise was deafening. "Just don't drink anything, alright?"

Jellybean waved him off before she stepped into the crowd, and Jughead nearly choked. "J-"

"Relax, man. Do you know how many times Jellybean has kicked someone's ass growing up? I can count at least five times since she turned eight." Archie squeezed his shoulder and then grabbed Veronica's hand. "She can take care of herself."

Jughead frowned as Archie and Veronica disappeared into the crowd. He had no doubt that he would be seeing either both of them back at the apartment, or that he wouldn't see either of them. Betty may have to stay at his place tonight, and the thought made his face go back to neutral, edging on a smile.

Betty knocked her shoulder into his. "For what its worth, Jellybean does seem pretty tough."

He looked at her, a full smile finally coming through. "She does, doesn't she?" He was almost too proud of the little Tasmanian devil he called a sister.

He put that aside and tried to focus on Betty. They hadn't really had a chance to deal with the aftermath of their actual first kiss yesterday morning, so the air around them was awkward, if not tense. With a chuckle, Jughead linked their fingers and pulled her along through the house. He wasn't going to fuck this up because he was awkward; that was too much of a cop out. "Want to find the drinks?"

She smirked and for a moment, Jughead swore he could see the devil in her eyes before she blinked and her green eyes were back. She bent and then straightened a moment later, a silver flask in her hand. "Found them."

She unscrewed it and took a sip before offering it to him. He took a sip without smelling it - a mistake - and started laughing. "Fuck, Betts. _Whiskey_?"

She shrugged, looking up at him from under his lashes. His heart started racing when she released his fingers and started trailing her hand up his arm. "Wanna go somewhere?"

He could only nod.

She led him down a dimly lit staircase and stopped when the stairs veered off in another direction. As soon as she stopped, she spun him around and pushed his back into the wall.

Her lips found his easily, almost like they had kissed more than once. Her mouth was hot and wet and tasted like the whiskey they had just swallowed. He pulled her closer to him by anchoring both of his hands around her neck and she obeyed, stepping as close as she could. She was aggressive and needy and Jughead opened his mouth to allow her closer.

He couldn't think, he couldn't breathe. His vision was red and _Betty Betty Betty_ and he growled as she trailed her mouth down his jaw to suck on a tender spot on his neck.

"I've been wanting to do this all day," she whispered against his skin. His hands traveled down her back and then under her shirt to hold her hips, his thumbs rubbing circles into her soft skin as she continued to kiss him hungrily.

"I _knew it_! Archie!"

Jughead groaned as Betty pulled away from him. He was cold now where she used to be pressed against him. He stayed leaning against the wall as Veronica hurtled down the stairs and in front of Betty, her eyes looking between the two of them excitedly.

“Now Jughead can shut up about us having loud sex!” Jughead opened his mouth but Veronica put out a hand that silenced him. “It’ll happen soon enough.”

Jughead and Betty’s cheeks burned in tangent. “Ronnie, did you need something?” Betty asked, leaning in Jughead’s direction.

Jughead pulled Betty the rest of the way, pressing her snuggly into his side. “Or did you just want to watch us makeout?” Veronica sighed. “Because that’s some freaky shit and I’m not down for it.”

Archie finally came down the stairs, a slap-drunk grin plastered on his face and his cheeks rosy from the alcohol. He wiggled his eyebrows when he saw how close Betty and Jughead were standing. “What did I miss?” he asked, his eyes lingering a little too long on Veronica’s collarbones that peeked out from under her sweater.

Jughead chuckled. “You and your girlfriend are both missing the social cues to leave us alone while we’re having a _moment_.”

Before Archie or Veronica could respond, there was a shout upstairs. Horror struck Jughead’s face as he pushed himself off the wall. The shout had been a girlish one, and he needed to know where his sister was, now. “Jellybean!” he said, pushing past his friends and racing up the stairs.

What he saw before him woke up the beast he always tried to keep locked down. There was a crowd of people surrounding his sister and a tall, big guy. The guy was getting in Jellybean’s face and Jughead could see his sister’s jaw clenching.

He made a move forward, but one second, Jellybean was being talked down to, and the next, her fist was connecting with the guy’s jaw. He howled in pain and Jellybean stomped away. “I told you to leave me the hell alone,” she called over her shoulder.

When she stopped in front of Jughead, the rest of his friends had caught up with him. “I think we should go, yeah?” The four of them followed the fifteen-year old out of the house.

~

Betty had been sat in the library for four hours when she got the text from Jughead.

_Juggy: I’m running a bit late. I’ll just meet you at your dorm xx_

Betty sighed. They had plans to cave up in the library today to prepare for finals, but yesterday Jughead had said that he had to do a last-minute errand in New York. He was supposed to be back around five to study some, but she guessed that wasn’t happening now.

That was all fine and dandy because Betty didn’t think that her brain could handle anymore studying that day. It was a Saturday, and her first final was Monday afternoon, and she had spent almost every waking moment cramming since the Yale-Harvard game. She would say that she didn’t need to study anymore, but her mind keeps replaying her kisses with Jughead over and over; it was hard to retain world history this way.

She gathered her books and put on Jug’s wool-lined denim jacket. He had given it to her a few days ago because he swore that every coat she owned was made for fashion and not warmth. As she walked across campus to her dorm, she thought about the past couple of weeks.

Jughead had fit himself seamlessly into her every day life. He’d stolen kisses only to have them stolen back from him. They held hands walking to class some mornings. She didn’t feel the need to talk about it. They just were. Jughead and Betty, Betty and Jughead. The two existed together now, did life alongside each other. Betty had never felt more overwhelmed and excited about life than she had since she met Jughead, and she couldn’t imagine going back to how dull the world seemed before she let his chaos into her life.

When she got back to her dorm, she found a note that Veronica left about getting a bite to eat with Archie. She microwaved a mug of water before putting a bag of chamomile in to steep and curling up on the couch with an old Gilmore Girls episode on the TV.

The next thing she knew, she was being shocked awake by cold fingers touching her cheek. There was a kink in her neck from how she had fallen asleep and she cursed as she twisted. When the sleep cleared from her eyes she saw Jughead kneeling before her.

“Let’s go to bed,” he whispered.

She reached out and grabbed his chin as he started to look away from her. “Jug, what happened?” There was a bandage on his jaw and it seemed to be a little swollen.

He pulled back and gave her a smile. “Its stupid. I slipped on the ice today and fell.”

She sat up, trying to get a better view of the damage. “Are yo-“

“I went and got it cleaned up at an urgent care. That’s why I was late,” he assured her, pressing a soft kiss to her cheek. She relaxed and let him pull her to her feet. “I thought I was going to need stitches so that’s why I went. But they just cleaned it and bandaged it. Said I’ll be fine.”

He stood outside of her room while she changed into her pajamas. “Veronica let me in on her way out. She’s crashing with Arch tonight,” he called through the door.

When she was done, she pulled him back into the room and they sank into her bed. It almost felt old habit now, even though they had only done it a handful of times. On one occasion she insisted that Jughead sleep without a shirt if he was going to be in her bed, so now she wiggled her back into the warm skin of his bare chest and he curled an arm around her waist. His fingers rested on the soft skin of her hip bone; it was one of his favorite spots to touch her.

Just when Jughead thought she had fallen back to sleep, she whispered, “I’m glad you don’t need stitches. Your face is too pretty.” He chuckled loudly into her hair even though the weight of his day threatened to suffocate him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, what's Juggie up to????
> 
> Thank you to everyone reading and commenting! It is so encouraging to hear what you guys thinks :)
> 
> And a special shout out to my new beta reader, @itstenafterfour (on tumblr)


	9. Out

For all her years studying and being a try-hard in high school, Betty was having a decidedly easy time on her finals. Sure, most of them were freshmen level classes that weren’t specialized to her major, but she still smiled with relief every time she walked out of a classroom knowing she aced the test.

Having finished their last final, Intro to Writing, by turning in a fifteen to twenty page short story, Jughead mounted his bike behind Betty’s car and followed her back to Riverdale for their Christmas break. Archie was driving home later that afternoon, as he had a history final still to take, and Veronica had left for New York City the night before.

As New Haven faded in Betty’s rearview mirror, apprehension crowded her mind. She had still not heard a single word from Alice - not that she had expected to - so her plans right now were to stay with Polly over school break. It was a month, and she knew she would be an extra mouth for Polly to feed and an extra person using the one bathroom in her sister’s small apartment; still, Polly had insisted. Where else would Betty go anyway?

She supposed if the cold war between her and her mother indeed did last like Betty felt it would, she would need to figure out a more permanent position for summer, but she could think about that when the time came. Just the thought of having to go through apartment listings started a cold sweat at the base of her neck.

She was broken from her thoughts when someone flashed their lights behind her. Betty shook her head and turned off the interstate just in time. If she had been stuck in her thoughts seconds longer, she would have missed her exit. Her cheeks burned when she figured that it was Jughead who had flashed the lights on his motorcycle at her. No doubt he would question her when they got to Polly’s.

Sure enough, Jughead fixed her with a questioning glance once they were pulled into the parking lot of Polly’s apartment complex. It was on the outskirts of Riverdale, almost into Greendale. The building was small, only two stories, surely no more than ten apartments, but was painted a bright yellow with white doors and shutters.

Jughead retrieved her suitcase from the trunk of her car without hesitation, and followed behind Betty as she ascended the stairs to the second floor apartments. Her sister was in the fourth one from the stairs; a Christmas wreath hung on the door. Betty knocked and then stepped back into Jughead, who wrapped his free arm around her waist.

“You sure you can’t stay for dinner?” Betty whispered while they were waiting for her sister. She looked up at him from under her eyelashes, using her unfair female advantage for persuasion.

Jughead smirked, then let his breath fan over her face. She moved to look at him, her nose dragging along his cheek. “I can’t, Betts.” She whimpered, and he pressed his mouth to hers briefly. He forced himself to pull away before Polly could catch them - and it was a hard task. The two had been disgusting, quite frankly, choosing to spend nights kissing until they couldn’t breathe or talking instead of sleeping. Why waste time being unconscious when they could be doing more interesting things?

Polly opened the door with a wide smile and pulled her sister from the leather-clad boy. “Betty! I hope you’re hungry because I’ve been baking all day because I’ve been too excited to do anything productive.”

Betty laughed as Jughead followed them into the house. Polly grabbed his arm and forced him into a hug. He stiffened against her sister, Betty giggling over Polly’s shoulder. “Jughead, hello. Want to take back some brownies? We have plenty.”

She released him, and he stepped back, his mouth pausing in a little ‘o.’ Betty stepped back into his orbit, squeezing his arm. It brought him back, and he almost-smiled at Polly. “Uh, sure. Jellybean loves brownies, and I’m certainly not going to turn them down.”

Polly made a face. “ _Gracious._ Your parents had a funny sense of humor when it came to naming you guys.” Betty snorted, and Jughead cut his eyes at her. “Anyway, I’ll throw in some chocolate chip cookies, too.” She turned on her heel, and the two college students followed her into the kitchen. Over the breakfast bar, Betty saw her two nephews sitting on the ground watching a movie. “Betty, I have you set up in the boys’ playroom. I hauled most of their toys into their room so its pretty clean.”

Betty pulled Jughead along behind her, towards her new room. It was painted a pale baby blue, there were a large whicker basket of toys, and two beanbag chairs pushed into the corner. In another corner was a blow-up mattress that Polly had covered in a set of sheets, and a makeshift side table with a small lamp sitting on top. Betty’s heart warmed at the thoughtfulness of her older sister, and tears brimmed her eyes.

She squeezed her eyes shut before turning back to Jughead so he wouldn’t see. “Welcome to my crib,” she joked, spreading her arms wide.

He parked her suitcase at the end of the mattress, before pulling her against his chest, hard. He didn’t want to leave her here. This wasn’t her home and she was clearly upset. For fuck sake, she had to sleep on an air mattress for a month. But what did he have to offer her? A couch in a trailer park, surrounded by the Serpents?

He kissed her forehead before forcing himself to let her go. “You going to be all right?”

She nodded. With nothing to hold, she wrapped her arms around herself instead. “Thanks for seeing me back, Juggy.”

A blush crept up his neck as he trailed behind her back into the kitchen. The twins noticed them this time, and it was a whole other episode for Jughead to extract himself away, a tupperware of baked goods tucked under his arm. He wished he didn’t have to go.

~

He parked his bike outside of his dad’s trailer. FP’s truck wasn’t there, and Jughead had a few guesses where his dad was, but none of the desire to go and find him. Word of his last trip to New York had no doubt gotten back to the Serpents, and Jughead wasn’t exactly rushing to get into that conversation.

When he walked into the trailer, a stench of staleness and grime greeted him. There were empty beer bottles littering the floor and the countertop, and dirty dishes piling up in the sink. Jughead knew what would he would see if he opened the fridge - or rather, what he _wouldn't_ see.

“Jellybean?” he called as he walked farther into the trailer. He pulled aside the curtain that acted as the door of his and his sister’s shared room. There were two twin-sized mattresses on the carpet, lining either wall. Jughead set his bag down on his bed before leaving the sad sight.

His sister was probably working a shift at Pop’s, and he could go for a burger. His plan was delayed when he opened up the door to the trailer. His dad was leaning against his truck, watching Jughead carefully.

Jughead swallowed and walked forward until he was a few feet from FP. “Hi, Dad. All done with my finals.”

His dad ignored him, and instead reached out and turned Jughead’s head by his chin. “No shit, son. It really happened.”

Jughead stepped back so his dad’s hand fell from his face. The mark on his jaw from his trip to New York had yet to finish healing, but it wasn’t sore anymore. Still, the evidence was clear on his face for anyone in the neighborhood to see. “Yeah, it did,” he said quietly.

FP crossed his arms. “You want to try to explain it to me before all these other guys found out you’re back?”

He shrugged. He didn’t particularly want to explain himself to his dad. It would just piss the man off, and then things would be weird while Jughead was home. But he couldn’t exactly avoid it. “I’m not a criminal, Dad. Just because some thugs beat me up doesn’t mean I changed my mind about what I said to them.”

FP sighed, and for a moment, a look of regret crossed his face. “You think its just that easy to walk away from all this?” Jughead pressed his lips into a straight line. “You know I can’t stop things from happening to you once everyone finds out.”

Jughead shrugged. “I’ve been taking care of myself for a long time now, Dad.”

FP snorted. Jughead turned on his heel, about to mount his bike, when his dad said, “You can’t keep the jacket, you know.” Jughead didn’t turn around as he pulled the leather jacket off and let it fall onto the ground, the green snake looking up at the dark night. His teeth were already chattering by the time he pulled out of the trailer park, the wind hitting his bare arms as he rode out of the neighborhood.

~

Jughead waved to his sister from the parking lot of Southside High. He didn't ask how she got to and from school while he wasn't here, and he didn't want to know, but while he was home, he would be her wheels.

"You ready for work?"

Jellybean laughed as she got onto the back of the bike. "You aren't going to stay at Pop's all night again, are you? You're _embarrassing._ "

Jughead snorted. "For all you know, I have a date."

She squeezed his middle tighter as he started the engine. "Betty's gonna be there today?"

Hearing how excited his sister got about Betty made him smile. "No, but she could have been, and you wouldn't have known." He surged the bike forward and his sister squeaked in his ear.

Soon enough, they arrived at Pop's. Jughead followed his sister into the diner, where he found a booth in the corner. Pop brought him his usual cup of coffee, and Jughead pulled out his laptop from his messenger bag. A few minutes later, his sister emerged from the back in her waistress uniform, giving her brother an eye roll when she saw him posted there. He wiggled his fingers at her in a sugary-sweet wave and then she promptly ignored him for the rest of her shift.

As nine-thirty rolled around, many of the patrons fizzled out. The bell above the door dinged and Jughead looked up, grimacing when he saw who it was. It was one of the older Serpents, in his mid forties or fifities. He was one of the menaer ones that Jughead had grown up avoiding. He locked eyes with Jughead and made his way over.

"Jones," the biker said, sitting across from Jughead. Jughead nodded and closed his laptop. He didn't want it to be a part of the wreckage which he could feel coming. "Heard you've been in town for a few days. Why haven't you been showing your face around?"

Jughead set his jaw and looked for Jellybean out of the corner of his eye. She was serving a group of rowdy Ridverdale High teenagers, distracted by a constant swirl of drink refills and milkshake orders. Good.

"You know I'm not exactly welcomed anymore, Mustang," he muttered, taking a sip of his coffee.

Mustang's face screwed up. "And who's fault is that?"

"I'd say whoever decided to make a kid run illegal money out of state is at fault, wouldn't you?"

"You little fuc-" The bell above the door jingled again, and in walked a familiar blonde head of hair. She was wearing his fleece-lined denim jacket and saw him instantly. He cursed under his breath and shook his head, hoping Mustang hadn't noticed, but of course he had.

Betty stopped walking when she noticed the attention of the older biker. Mustang turned back to Jughead, and quick as lightning, shoved him back against the booth, hard. When Jughead looked back up at him, he was standing. "I'll be in touch," he said with a smirk. Betty wrapped her arms around herself when Mustang passed by her, and waited until the door to Pop's closed before she rushed over to him.

"What was that?" she asked quietly, sliding into the booth next to him. She wrapped her hand around his arm and looked into his face with concern.

He leaned forward and kissed her temple before pulling back. "You don't need to worry about it, okay? I'm handling it."

A cross looked settled itself over her face. "Seriously, Jughead? You're going to keep something from me _again_?" She sighed. "Well, I refuse. I'll find out even if it isn't from you." She tried to pull away, standing from the booth, but Jughead grabbed her waist and anchored her back down.

"Betts, fuck, no. You can't go talk to that guy. Did you not just see what he did to me in the middle of Pop's?" He loosened his grip around her middle when he was satisfied that she wouldn't try to get up again. "He doesn't care who you are, okay, or how many people see."

Now Betty's face was half anger and half concern. "Tell me what's going on, then. I don't see you for three days and you're already doing something shady?"

The words stung him, and loosened his tongue. "I'm not being shady, Betty. I'm trying to get out! The Serpents are doing something bad, and I'm trying to get away from it. Did you really think I fell on ice in New York?" Betty's eyebrows furrowed, but he kept going. "They had me running money from selling illegal goods, and I told them I didn't want to do it anymore. I gave back my Serpents jacket."

The hurt didn't move from Betty's face, and he started feeling guilty for his sharp words. "Someone beat you up and you lied about it?"

"What would you have done about it?" he demanded, his voice not backing down. He knew he was doing everything wrong, but he couldn't stop himself. He needed her to realize the severity of the situation, how dangerous these people were. She didn't belong to that part of his life, she was't safe in that world, and he was trying to get out of it all, for her. He would be as hard as he needed to be to get her to realize what they were really dealing with.

He saw her eyes brim with tears, and she stood up again. This time, he didn't try to stop her. "I could have helped you, Juggy. I don't want you to have to go through this alone. Its scary."

He shook his head, knowing he was about to make everything so much worse. "You can't help me with this, Betts. Just go home."

To his relief and horror, she did.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well. There it is. One more chapter left, friends. A lot is about to happen.
> 
> Also, at about the middle of this chapter, writer's block hit me super hard. As such, I just finished writing this 3 minutes ago and can't stand to edit it right now. I'll come back later and fix some mistakes that I see. That's also why this chapter is shorter than the previous ones.
> 
> Thanks so so much for reading, and PLEASE, tell me what you think!
> 
> BONUS: head on over to my tumblr because I want to answer questions from you guys or just talk to you about the story. Who knows, maybe if you ask the right thing, you'll get spoilers for the last chapter! (tumblr: confirmedbugheadtrash)


	10. Snake Pit

Betty was more than angry, and Archie was getting it all first hand.

Jughead had texted her a few hours after he sent her away from Pop’s. _“Just give me a few days to work this out.”_ She hadn’t responded and he hadn’t reached out to her again.

“He’s being an idiot, is what he’s being,” Betty snarled into the room. From his place on the floor, Archie’s eyebrows went up. They had drifted apart this past semester, with Veronica in both of their lives and Betty getting closer to Jughead, so the redhead had forgotten how passionate his friend could be. “Its been four days, Arch. Four. What has he been doing?”

Archie winced as her voice rose. They had just put Polly’s twins down for a nap, and he didn’t want them waking up anytime soon. They had exhausted him this morning, running all over the apartment and demanding to be chased. “You don’t think he can figure it out?”

Betty turned to glare at him. “That’s not the point. The _point_ is that he shouldn’t keep me out of it.”

Betty’s mind had yet to be quiet. She now knew that what had happened to his jaw was not an accident, and she saw how Mustang had shoved Jughead in the booth that night at Pop’s. He could be lying somewhere dying in a ditch for all she knew, and she was supposed to just stay out of it all. _Okay._

Archie stood and sat on the couch beside her, slinging and arm around her shoulder. “What could you do even if he wasn’t keeping you in the dark about it, though?” he asked, squeezing her shoulder. 

~

It was the day before Christmas Eve. Polly and Betty were at the grocery store, buying the things they could afford to make Christmas lunch. They hadn’t heard anything from their mother about any family plans, so they were preparing to be on their own for the holidays. It was a bit ridiculous if they thought about it, a twenty-one year old and an eighteen year old living together with two babies, spending Christmas alone. Polly had even gotten Betty to laugh at their situation one night after the girls had opened Polly’s emergency bottle of wine after the twins had gone to sleep.

Betty was getting used to the idea of being without her mother. It was a sad and harsh reality, but so many other people did it. At least Betty had had her mother while she was growing up. 

“Is Jughead coming over for Christmas?” Polly asked as they passed the raw turkeys and went towards the chicken. It was going to be a non-traditional holiday.

Betty curled her hands into fists. There had still not been a single word from Jughead. It had been six days now. Did she even still have a boyfriend, if that’s what he had even been to her? Who knew. “Probably not,” she answered curtly. “He’s doing business for the Serpents,” she said lower, glancing around the grocery aisle for listening ears.

Polly frowned. “I was hoping he wouldn’t follow his dad’s footsteps.”

Betty shrugged. “Me too.”

“Is there anything you can do?”

The blonde shook her head. “He doesn’t want my help, and I’m done offering if he’s just going to keep rejecting me.”

Polly stopped pushing the cart as they turned onto another aisle. “Betty Cooper, are you actually giving up?” Betty blanched and tried to speak, but Polly kept going. “That’s not the sister I remember. Since when do you let a friend go down a path of self-destruction? I saw how you two moved around each other the day when you came home for Christmas break. Like gravity kept pulling you two together instead of keeping you guys on the ground.” Polly sighed. “You can’t let that go.”

~

She got more stares than she thought she would. After all, despite what Jughead kept saying, she belonged here. She was the daughter of Alice Cooper; Betty might’ve been born a Serpent if Alice had chosen to stay with the gang. It was not insane that she might turn up there at some point in her life. And yet, she felt eyes on her from all directions, heard the slight stirrings as people turned to look at her. She swallowed hard and kept walking deeper into the snake pit until she saw his back, clad in worn black leather.

“You told me you gave your jacket back,” she said loudly. The girl with pink hair sitting beside Jughead turned to look at her, as did a tall boy with dark hair. They were both wearing leather. Jughead never so much as flinched.

“Its not that simple, sweetheart,” the girl bit back. Her words spurred Jughead into action and he swiveled around on the barstool to face her. There were dark circles under his eyes and a bruise creeping up the side of his neck that can’t been there the last time they had spoken.

“Toni, _don’t_ ,” he bit back at the girl before looking to Betty. The girl stuck her tongue in the side of her cheek but otherwise stayed quiet.

“Making the choice to lie is simple,” Betty finally said.

Jughead shook his head and sighed. “None of this is simple, Betts.”

She tried her hardest not to flinch at the nickname on his tongue. “Why did you lie to me?”

There was a beat or two of silence before he answered. When he did, he looked to the ground. “Because I was hoping you would believe me.”

“You think I’m that dumb?”

This brought Jughead’s attention back to her face. He grimaced and stood from the stool, taking a step towards her. “Of course not. I just didn’t want you to get involved. You would get hurt.”

Betty squeezed her eyes shut. She felt like her brain might explode. “Why don’t you get that I don’t care if I get hurt or not? I just want _you_.” Jughead’s mouth opened but she kept going. “I never asked you to leave the Serpents. I never once said anything bad about them. You’re the one pushing me away.”

Jughead’s jaw stiffened. Betty saw Toni and the taller boy glance at each other. “Can we please talk outside?” he asked quietly.

Betty sighed. She had come here wanting so badly to fix this, and yet Jughead was still making excuses. “No, I don’t think we can.” She turned on her heel to leave but felt familiar fingers grab at her wrist.

When she looked up at his face, inches from hers, there were tears welling in his eyes. “Betty, please. I love you, okay? Betty swallowed thickly. “I love you and I want to do right by you. We can’t be together while this stuff is happening. I can’t take that risk.”

A tear slipped down Betty’s cheek and she pulled her wrist from his grip. “I gotta go, Jughead,” she whispered, and slipped away. He let her go.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Bet you thought you'd seen the last of me...
> 
> But seriously! I'm taking a break from the real world for the next month so here is this super short chapter.
> 
> For anyone who reads this: thanks for welcoming me back. I hope I won't disappoint.
> 
> Also you might notice that the chapter limit is no longer 10 chapters. Who knows what I'm doing with my life now???


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